Filling in the Blanks: London Stationery Binding 1650-1850

This thesis presents the first comprehensive physical and biographical analyses of the blankbook binding trade. It will primarily focus on parchment-bound ledgers made in London between 1650 and 1850, and the people behind them. Blankbooks, that is, those made to be written in, have been insufficiently considered in histories of the book. Part I of this thesis presents a materials-led study of almost 400 blankbooks. It is the first study to look beyond medieval Italian-style stationery bindings, and the springback Account Books of the nineteenth century, to consider the material blankbook in its plainest form. This survey identifies several elements and practices unique to the blankbook which have thus far been excluded from letterpress-centric scholarship. Part II of this thesis explores the lives of the Londoners who bound these books. Again, it is the first in-depth study of its kind. A directory of around 400 blankbook makers has been collated during this research and is drawn on in this part to build a picture of the Londoners who bound blankbooks in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The study is then narrowed to examine the lives of five successive vellum binders, linked across two centuries by the master/apprentice system of the Merchant Taylors’ Company. Part I highlighted several features unique to blankbooks; Part II considers the impact of these differences on the lives of real people. In doing so, this thesis raises new questions not only on the history of bookbinding, but also on the economics, gender roles, and social context of the blankbook binding trade.