Victorian publisher's bookbindings: March 2024

Nimmo’ s Two Shilling Reward Books

Text © Copyright Edmund M B King

In common with other mid-Victorian publishers, William P. Nimmo placed very many advertisements in trade journals, in newspapers, and in their own printed lists. These lists of titles published were frequently bound into their books. They are useful today, in providing a snapshot of the publisher’s expectations at the time they were issued. They are testimony also to the huge quantities of books published. William Nimmo was based in Edinburgh, with Simpkin & Marshall selling his works in London “…and the Principal Wholesale Houses.” By the 1860s, Nimmo was prominent, in creating multiple series, using their name, and stratifying series by price.

In just one list bound at the rear of The Blade and The Ear, 1865 (BL shelf mark 8405.aaa.32.), these series are listed:

Nimmo’s Five Shilling Edition of the Works of the Poets – Nimmo list, 1865, p.9

Nimmo’s Library Edition of Standard Works, Well Adapted for Prizes in Upper Classes and High Schools – Nimmo list, 1865, p.11

Nimmo’s New Presentation Series of Standard Works – Nimmo list, 1865, p.13

Nimmo’s New Series of Eighteen Penny Standard Books – Nimmo list, 1865, p.8

Nimmo’s New Series of One Shilling Juvenile Books – Nimmo list, 1865, p.16

Nimmo’s New Series of Two Shilling Standard Books (in Preparation) – Nimmo list, 1865, p.8

Nimmo’s New Series of Two Shillings and Sixpenny Standard Books – Nimmo list, 1865, p.8

Nimmo’s Popular Edition of the Works of the Poets – Nimmo list, 1865, p.7

Nimmo’s Popular Religious Gift-Books. … price 1s. 6d. each – Nimmo list, 1865, pp. 18-20

Nimmo’s Standard Religious Series – Nimmo list, 1865, p. 21

Looking at Nimmo’s New Series of Two Shilling Standard Books, there are the five volumes of the series, illustrated and discussed below.

BL4824bb26 page 8

This series is likely to have been re-titled - in the list bound at the rear of The Young Men of the Bible (BL 4824.bb.26) - to: Nimmo’s New Series of Two Shilling Reward Books. Nimmo used four different printers for the first five books in the series:Volume I was printed by Schenk and McFarlane; Volume II was printed by Ballantyne and Company; Volume III: The Land of Promise, was printed by Murray and Gibb; another Volume III Monarchs of Ocean, was also printed by Murray and Gibb; Volumes IV and V were printed by Thomas Paton. The intention was to provide religious education to younger readers.

Each volume has a similar binding, apart from the lettering to spine and upper cover.

Volume I. The Far North.

BL 10460a17

II. The Young men of the Bible.

BL 4824bb26

BM 1996,1104.7

BM 1996,1104.7 Frontispiece after Lawson

III. The Land of Promise.

BL 10076aa29

III Monarchs of Ocean

BL 10026aa12

IV. The Blade and the Ear

BL 8405aaa32

BM 1992,0406.22

BL 8405aaa32 Frontispiece after Lawson

V. Life’s Crosses.

BL12620aa30

BL 12620aa30 frontispiece after Lawson

The Bookseller, 31.7.1866, page 673

Nimmo advertised this series in The Bookseller, 31 July 1866 (page 673) shows that The Land of Promise was replaced as volume III in the series, by Monarchs of Ocean.

The Bookseller 12.12.1866, page 62

Sales may have been quite good, for Nimmo took out another advertisement in The Bookseller of 12 December 1866 (page 62). The reproduction of Lawson’s “Joseph in Prison”, originally the frontispiece of The Young Men of the Bible – took up space in The Bookseller and must have incurred a higher fee for its reproduction.

So, what did the purchaser get for an outlay of two shillings? Although books such as these were at the cheaper end of the market, two shillings was about a third of the weekly wage of 5s. at this time. So, these books were not really cheap. Each book had some 220 pages of letterpress. There was a frontispiece for each book. A well-known artist was employed to provide the frontispiece illustrations, such as John Lawson (for II. The Young Men of the Bible; IV. The Blade and the Ear; and V. Life’s Crosses); Robert Paterson being the engraver. Lawson and Paterson both worked in Scotland at this time. Lawson and Paterson used diphthongs for the “JL” and the “RP” of their signatures.

The binding design is uniform for all the volumes, with only the spine and upper cover lettering being altered for each. They do not appear to have been signed with a binder’s ticket or stamp. It seems likely that the books were bound in Scotland. The bindings were of brightly dyed cloth, with blind stamped decoration on each lower cover, and gilt decoration on each spine and the upper cover. Bright cloth colours must have enhanced the appearance of the volumes on a book shelf, or on a table. The Robin de Beaumont copy of The Young Men of the Bible published in 1872, lists an expanded number of volumes in this series to XI. The de Beaumont copy has on its lower cover, a stamp of the West of Scotland Institution, Glasgow (BM 1996,1104.7). It is a possible later binding variant from the design for each of the other volumes. So, it is possible that this variant binding was available to named purchasers who paid to have their name blocked on the cover, and gifted the book to pupils - a ‘reward’ book. Indeed, the central medallion blocked in blind on the lower covers of the rest of the volumes suggests this. So, this series was an all Scottish production effort, with education and religious instruction to the fore, giving us an example of how business endeavour was applied by William Nimmo.

Tuesday 5 March 2024

Nimmo’ s Two Shilling Reward Books