EXHIBITION
THE choice of title is significint. It is the " book-jacket," be it noted, and not the " dust-cover " ; and between the two terms there lies a long history of gradual development. Mr. Charles Rosner, in an essay written to accompany this most interesting exhibition, identifies the earliest known dust-wrapper as having been issued by Longman's with Heath's Keepsake in 1833. Heath had introduced a binding of watered silk which was especially liable to get dirty and called for protection. This early dust-wrapper was of pale buff paper printed in red, and carried advertisements on the back. But for the next sixty years the most common wrapper was one of plain transparent glassine ; it was not until the 'nineties that serious attention began to be given to the appearance of the jacket (Mr. Rosner may be interested to know that Mr. A. D. Marks, the publisher, then with Fisher, Unwin, was one of the earliest designers of pictorial wrappers at that time), and it was probably not until about 1910 that the wrapper was generally used to print the now familiar " blurb."
The terrors of dust have by no means abated since they threatened Heath's Keepsake, but how well artistic ingenuity and typographical skill have combined to make a thing of beauty out of a piece of utilitarian expediency, visitors to this comprehensive, well-arranged exhibition can see for themselves. Here are 45o examples of the book-jackets of nineteen countries. Those of Great Britain arc, naturally, the most numerous, and it may be said, in all modesty, that they show qualities of refinement and distinction that seem to merit the emphasis. Work by Kenneth Rowntree, John Minton, Barbara Jones, Hans Tisdall, Arthur Rackham, Rex Whistler—a varied assortment of styles—particularly catches the eye. Mr. Barnett Freedman's mastery of auto-lithography is well exemplified in one of several technical exhibits ; close to it is Mr. Graham Sutherland's design for a book not yet published, imaginative in colour and conception, but perhaps less effective for its particular purpose. The American jackets are generally well-produced and well-lettered, though often blatant with a New World. self-confidence that seems vulgar by our standard. The French have turned only recently to the pictorial jacket, but artists like Jacques Demachy, Helene Guertik and Marlene Lydis show themselves well qualified for the job. A tradition of fine typography is obviously still alive in most of the Continental countries. Preference between the nineteen nations will be largely a matter of individual taste. Speaking personally, and if these exhibits can be taken as a guide, I would rather have a jacket designed in Switzerland or Chile than in Czechoslovakia or in Sweden. The collection as a whole is an impressive display of sensibility in an art-form that has come to stay. DERFX HUDSON.
Previous page
