Brocade Papers in the Collection of Russian Books of Civil Printing of the 18th Century of the Russian State Library Book Museum

Among the decorative binding papers of the 18th century, brocade papers, so called because of their resemblance to expensive gold woven fabrics, can be recognized as particularly spectacular. The rich relief pattern, the combination of gold and silver lustre with a multi-coloured paper backing was the secret of their popularity in European countries for a whole century.

The technique of paper gilding and embossing originated in the early 18th century in Augsburg. Subsequently, brocade papers were produced in various cities in Germany and mainly spread throughout Europe from there. Although brocade papers were also used by Russian masters, there are no special works about this binding material in the Russian historiography.

The article is devoted to the description of the collection of brocade papers preserved as covers and forzats in Russian civil books of the 18th century in the collection of the Book Museum of the Russian State Library (RSL). The questions of terminology, production technology and systematization of brocade papers are considered. The main types of domestic publications characterized by the use of this material are calendars, published annually at the Academy of Sciences printing house in St. Petersburg, and descriptions of various celebrations, speeches “on occasion”, odes, “instructive words” and “reasonings”, produced by different printing houses and usually small in volume.

The collection provides rich material for a more accurate understanding of the role of the printing house and the aesthetic preferences of the reading public in the external design of books in the period of the birth of bookbinding in Russia. Decorative binding papers are valuable not only for the researcher of old-printed books, librarian, collector or restorer, but also for the cultural historian in a broad sense, as content, stylistically and technologically they reflect general trends in the production of wallpapers, fabrics, furniture and trade packaging. On the basis of the description of the quantitative and qualitative composition of the collection of the RSL Book Museum a methodology of working with brocade papers is proposed, which can be applied to the collections of other fund holders as well.

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