@27122024
Yellowbacks in The Robin de Beaumont
Collection
Robin de Beaumont was a pre-eminent collector and
bookseller of Victorian books. He died in 2023 aged 97. Details of his life and
collecting are available via the Sheila Markham interview https://www.sheila-markham.com/interviews/robin-de-beaumont.html
His collection of Victorian publications was one of
the finest, as the condition of a book was paramount – always the copy in best
condition was sought and retained, whilst the same book in a lesser condition
was sold. Books with provenance he frequently purchased. I had become familiar
with some of the publishers’ bindings in his collection, having provided an
essay and descriptive entries for the books that he gifted to the British
Museum in 1994, entitled: Prints,
Provenance and decorated book covers. Cataloguing The British Museum Robin de
Beaumont Collection. https://victorianbookbindings.blogspot.com/2019/
His family put up his collection for auction, via
Bonhams. Consequently, an online sale of the collection was held on 31 January
2024. Purchases of Lots at the online auction were made by the British Library,
with generous support from the BL Collections Trust.
Lot 189 - yellowbacks - consisted of forty-two books. (The British Library shelfmarks are C188.a.562 to
C.188.a. 603) This denotes yellow dyed paper drawn over boards, often with
colour printing on the covers and the spine. It is most likely that the
printing of the covers was done before their attachment to paper/ card wrappers (forming a case) and then subsequently to the text block. For further information about
yellowbacks, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-back
Lot 188 - paper wrappers - consisted of ninety-seven books. (The British Library shelfmarks are C.188.a. 604 to C.188.a.701) See:
https://victorianbookbindings.blogspot.com/2025/01/paper-wrappers-in-robin-de-beaumont.html
British Library decided to make images and
descriptions for each of these books in these two Lots, using Wikimedia
Commons.
Publisher’s titles or other advertisements often
printed on the lower cover of books in Lots 188 and 189. The price of one
shilling frequently appears on these books - some six pence today. This was
quite a bit of money at the time. However, there were large numbers of books
published in this period for a penny or two pence. The British Library book Penny
Dreadfuls… The Barry Ono Collection (1998), together with a film of Barry
Ono showing his collection (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgS9Bq2E3ew
) and The Aldine Library “O’er Land and Sea” https://uk.pinterest.com/search/my_pins/?q=aldine%20library&rs=ac
- these examples provide details of
books published for a mass market. Additionally, publishers’ lists of their own
books were very frequently printed on endpapers, pastedowns and lower covers
(see: https://uk.pinterest.com/edmundking/victorian-publishers-titles/
)
For each de Beaumont book entry, images were normally
made of: the covers and the spine; the title page; the frontispiece, if present;
the notes, the bookplate, endpapers and pastedowns. In the notes field of each Wikimedia
entry, there a full description of the work, and its book covers. de Beaumont
was systematic in writing notes regarding where and when the book was purchased
and price paid. Occasionally a purchase invoice is tipped in, such as an
invoice from Books-n-Bric-a- Brac (C188a579).
It is clear from de Beaumont’s own notes, that he
collected these cheaper books for many years. Some are in poor condition, probably
meaning that other copies were not readily available for purchase. The examples
of yellowbacks below attest the popularity of this form of illustration, printing
and binding.
These illustrations of covers are all available, with
detailed descriptions in Wikimedia commons at:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Formerly_Robin_de_Beaumont_Collection
(If this link does not work, then keying into the Wikimedia
Commons search box, the category
Formerly Robin de Beaumont collection enables all the books to be viewed together. Click on an individual
thumbnail image, to retrieve a larger image, and also the full descriptive
entry. Alternatively, you can key into the Wiki search box, the BL shelf mark
and a running number for an individual book. For example C188a573 01; C188a569
01)
Yellowbacks
Fiction
Ouida – Ennui, [1856] - C188a573
Ouida - Two little wooden Shoes. [1880] - C188a569
How could he help it? [1860] - C188a588
Educational – Wonders of the world [1856] - C188a579
Historical tales [1860] – C188a570
Technology/ science – The steam engine [1860] - C188a581
Common objects of the microscope [1868] - C188a571
Natural history – British birds eggs and nests 1861 - C188a566
A Fern Book 1867 - C188a592
Sport – Cricket 1862 C188a568
Gymnastics [1858] - C188a583
Recreation
Recreation - How to spin for pike 1862 - C188a577
Travel – Mrs. Brown’s visits to Paris [1869] - C188a582;
Mrs Brown in the Highlands [1869] - C188a572;
Travel - Chats by the Sea 1868 – C188a576
Domestic
Stocking Knitters Manual 1878 – C188a575
How we managed without servants [1877] – C188a584
Social life - Law and Lawyers 1858 – C188a567
The Medical Student 1861 – C188a574
Religion – not many of these, an example: He’s
Overhead [1871]– C188a578
Fiction – Marryat. The dog fiend [1880] - C188a639
Edmund Evans
Some of the illustrations printed in colour on the
front cover were the work of Edmund Evans, a well-known engraver and colour
printer. In his book Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing (1972),
pp. 155-156 & 178-182, Ruari McLean states just how prolific and long-lived
Evans was, working from the 1850s up to the end of the century. Evans’s task
was “…to convert a monochrome drawing into a three coloured job by selecting
and cutting areas for printing in red and blue over the black … generally only
three printings were used – black blue, and red; or black, green and red…” (p.
156). The yellow dye provided the contrast for the other colours.
There are nine books in this collection whose covers
have Evans’s imprint. A list of the titles is at Appendix A. He is likely to have accepted orders from
George Routledge, the publisher, and from many others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Evans
Other printers, such as Vizetelly Brothers and Dalziel
Brothers, were involved in the work of colour printing of covers for
yellowbacks.
Appendix A Colour printed covers with the imprint of
Edmund Evans
Law and Lawyers – C188a567
Routledge’s Handbook of Cricket (1862) – C188a568
Historical Tales [1860] – C188a570
Ennui, and Emilie de Coulanges: being Tales of
Fashionable Life (1856) – C188a573
The London Medical Student (1861) – C188a574
Richmond’s Tour of Europe (1853) – C188a580
Letters left at the Pastrycook’s (1854) - C188a604
A Story with a Vengeance (1853) – C188a659
Pilgrims of the Rhine (1861) – C188a684
--
Vizetelly & Co.
Stories for Children from “Parent’s Assistant”. Simple
Susan (1846) – C188a610
Dalziel Brothers.
Darnley; or the field of the Cloth of Gold (1875) – C188a686
Edmund M B King
St Albans
January 2025
