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Some people collect antique leather-bound books for purely aesthetic reasons, using them as decorative objects to fill the shelves of a living room or study. Others collect for content, choosing leather-bound versions of their favorite novels or historical works of literature.
Regardless of a collector’s motivation, there are a few things to know. First of all, what type of leather is used in the book’s binding? Because it’s easy to dye, calf skin has long been a favorite of book binders, who also use this type of leather to create tree-trunk or other wood-grain effects. Levant leather is made from goat skin, and was typically used in books described as being made from Moroccan leather. Then there’s seal skin, which is easy to work and gives book covers a shiny look.
The other major attribute of leather-bound books is the decoration on the leather itself. Some books feature coats of arms on their covers, signifying the patron who commissioned...
Relievo binding refers to a deeply embossed type of tooling on a leather-bound book’s cover, Cambridge is the word for two-tone leather covers, and Etruscan binding describes a cover that has been acid etched and typically features a central panel surrounded by a decorative border.
Private presses famous for their leather-bound books include The Kelmscott Press, which was founded in 1891 by English Arts and Crafts evangelist William Morris. Kelmscott inspired Elbert Hubbard to set up the Roycroft Press in the United States.
In the 1920s and ’30s, the U.K.’s Golden Cockerel Press hired Sangorski & Sutcliffe to bind limited editions of “The Canterbury Tales” and other titles. Around the same time, Caxton Press of Idaho published a number of signed, Morocco-leather Vardis Fisher books, some in editions as small as 10.
In recent decades, Easton Press has been producing large quantities of leather-bound books by contemporary authors as varied as Kurt Vonnegut and Maya Angelou. And in the 1970s and ’80s, the Franklin Mint’s Franklin Library division produced mass-market sets such as “The 100 Greatest Books of All Time” and “Pulitzer Prize Classics.”
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Easton Press Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged Limited Leather Edition New Sealed Slipcase
Rare 1886-1888 6 Volume Leather History Of California Hubert Howe Bancroft Maps
Relation Of A Journey Begun An Dom 1610/rare Early Edit/1627/fine Leather Bindng
Easton Press: John Steinbeck Six Volume Collection - Leather Bound
Lot Of 12x Easton Press New And Sealed Leather 100 Greatest See List And Pics
1972 Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra Don Quixote/wood Leather Rare Mexico Edition
Shipmaster's-owner's Manual/*1790/rare Edition/mercantile Navy/fine Leather Bndg
*united States History* 13 Volumes Leather Lot Complete Set! America 9 5/8" Tall
Antique 1880's Victorian Pictorial Leather Family Holy Bible W/ornate Clips
1750 King James Bible--complete-leather-baskett-oxford
1999 Cold Mountain Charles Frazier Easton Press Leather Bound Signed Civil War
Treatise On Naval Architecture/rare 1794 Edition/william Hutchinson/fine Leather
Dulac..rubaiyat Omar Khayyam..ca.1920's.fine Leather Binding In S/c.
95 Volumes Of The Little Leather Library
Vintage Mount Vernon Savings Bank Leather Business Ledger Book Nos Advertising
Book Of Common Prayer/1762/rare Baskerville Edition/fine Original Leather Bindng
George Eliot - 9 Volumes - Fine Leather Binding - Ca. 1880 - Middlemarch, Etc
103 Volumes Louis L'amour Bantam Books, Leather, Gilt Edges, Maps Western Novels
Veterum Romanorum Religio Castrametatio/rare 1st Edit./1685/fine Leather Binding
10 Vol.franklin Library First Edition Society Full Leather Book Collection Lot 
Easton Press Collectors Edition Great Gatsby Leather Bound
Hawaii - James A. Michener - Easton Press - Two Volume Limited Edition - Leather
Arabian Nights..col'd Plates By Soper,,ca1940..fine Leather Binding. Fine Copy
F. Scott Fitzgerald Tales Of The Jazz Age 1922 1st N.y Fine Original 3/4 Leather
Easton Press, Leather Bound, Sleeping Beauty And Other Fairy Tales
Easton Press World's Religions Huston Smith Signed Limited Coa Leather Bound
Easton Press Astounding Stories 60th Limited Edition Leather Bound 3 Vols
Very Rare 1866 Leather Mark Twain 1st Appearance Hawaii Open Boat Illustrated
A Collection Of 10 Various Old Leather Bound Antiquarian Books 18th & 19th C.
Select Fables Thomas Bewick Leather Bound Aesop Animals Engravings Book Vtg 1820
Mondo Poster Print Art Leather Bound Book Mondonomicon Vol 3 Numbered Out Of 100
Easton Press Last Theorem Frederik Pohl Clarke Signed Limited First Leather
Plutarch's Lives 5 Volume Set 3/4 Leather Binding 1878
Scarce Chess Leather Chess Book. 1819. Philidor. Binding. Chess Strategy. Game
Rare Antique Silver Case Miniature Prayer Leather Book 1904
Easton Press Avoid Boring People James Watson Signed Limited First Leather Bound
The Easton Press--butler's Lives Of The Saints--four Volumes--leather Hc
Alcoholics Anonymous 'blue Book,' 1955 Revised Edn. W/ Leather Aa Cover 
Easton Press 2 Volume Collection - Eisenhower By Stephen Ambrose - Leather Vgc
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Lot Of 8 Franklin Library Leather Bound Books
Salvador Dali Jerusalem Bible 1970 Unused Red Leather Gold Gilt Edges
Antique Family Bible Unmarked Clasp Parables Leather Illustrated 1895
1844 Holy Bible Folio Leather Fine Illus Genealogy God Devil Jesus Hell Apostles
1913 Practice & Science Of Drawing By Harold Speed Full Leather Prize Binding
Very Rare! 1845 1st Ed The Complete Poetical Works Of Lord Byron Leather Binding
Rare 1872 Fine Leather Salesman's Sample Holy Bible Gustave Dore Prints Scarce!!
1751 Works Of Jonathan Swift - 11 Full Leather Vols - Plates - Gullivers Travels
History Of Elizabethan Literature By George Saintsbury Leather Prize Binding 
C. 1833 Medical Dictionary, Pre Civil War, Science, Antique Leather Book, 1st Ed
Tom Wolfe Bonfire Of The Vanities Signed 1st Leather Franklin Library Bin Nr
Antique Webster's English Dictionary 6th Edition 1856 Leather Binding
History Of The Battle Gettysburg American Heritage Easton Press Leather Military
Rare 1942 Miguel Covarrubias Signed Leather Ltd. Ed. Discovery & Conquest Mexico
Push Comes To Shove - Twyla Tharp - Easton Press - Signed First Edition- Leather
Very Rare Protestant Hardcover Antique Leather Family Bible 1800
1858 Poetical Works William Wordsworth Full Leather Illustrated Poems Rare $$
1790 Aesop's Fables - Samuel Croxall - Full Tree Calf Leather - Illustrated
Rare 1949 Signed Leather Ltd. Edition The Seven Voyages Of Sinbad The Sailor
Tennyson's Poems. 7 Antique Books From 1886. Leather Clad. 