Colourful tropical fish such as these from Strack’s Naturgeschichte in Bildern mit erläuterndem [1826] were popular subjects in colour-plate books about fish.
Naturgeschichte in Bildern mit erläuterndem Text. IV. Lieferung: Fische
Professor Christian Friedrich Leberecht Strack (author)
This page from Strack’s Naturgeschichte in Bildern mit erläuterndem [1826] illustrates three species of fish grouped together because of their unusual body shapes.
The decorative title page of Strack’s work credits “Arnz & Co” as the lithographers.
Illustrators and printers have struggled with how best to represent the vibrant colours and unusual shapes of fish on the page. The invention of chromolithography presented a new way to print in colour, and this technique was quickly used to print images of fish. Strack’s Naturgeschichte in Bildern mit erläuterndem [1826] was one of the fish books to use chromolithography to show the diversity of beautiful fish.
In addition to the diversity of perspectives that non-Western books bring to my collection, the physical books themselves reveal differing characteristics of book-making around the world. These Japanese books are bound by punching holes through the boards and text block and then externally stitching the boards and text block together with a string. The pages themselves are made from a thin but supple type of paper folded in half with printed portions on only the outside, but not the inside, surfaces of the resulting folded leaf.
Wakan Sansai Zue [Volumes 48-51, comprising the complete fish section of the encyclopedia]
One significant new direction in my collection since A History of Fish debuted is my effort to collect books in less-common languages and from non-Western authors. This set, purchased from a bookseller in Japan, includes the complete fish section of the Wakan Sansai Zue encyclopedia. Including non-Western titles in my collection reveals interesting ways that various cultures have viewed and classified fish. For example, these volumes divide fish into four main classes: “Fish in rivers and lakes with scales,” “Fish in estuaries and seas with scales,” “Fish in rivers and lakes without scales,” and “Fish in estuaries and seas without scales.”
A primary purpose of dust jackets has been to preserve and protect the bindings they cover. The jacket has certainly served this purpose, as both the boards and gilding of this copy are bright and clean.
The Sporting Fish of Great Britain with Notes on Ichthyology
Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington
Dust jackets have been used by publishers for at least a few centuries to protect a book’s binding and also to advertise the book’s contents and other works from the publisher. Dust jackets were often discarded, however, to reveal the attractive binding beneath or because readers found them to be a nuisance. As a result, pre-twentieth-century dust jackets are especially scarce. This dust jacket from 1886 simply reproduces the text found on the book’s boards. The book it covers is the only copy of this common title I have seen with its jacket. The jacket is the oldest dust jacket in my collection.
This beautiful full-page plate of an Arctic Grayling is the only colour illustration in Richardson’s Notice of the Fishes and is one of my favourite images in my collection.