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Dr Grace Touzel

@boundtobeused.bsky.social

120 followers 360 following 13 posts

Digital Special Collections / Metadata Librarian @nhm_library_archives. Easily distracted by bookbinding(s), blank books, rare books, and book history in general.

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Reposted by Dr Grace Touzel

NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Sep 15

Dunk, turn, dunk, turn, dunk…If you're doing one textblock, why not do eight? G.A. Olivier's Entomologie (Paris 1789-1808). #MarbledMonday #MarbledPaper #SpecialCollections #BlueSkyBooks

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Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · Sep 5

A lovely thing to end the week on: Thomas Martyn's Aranei : or a natural history of Spiders (London, 1793). Bound by Christian Samuel Kalthhoeber? Perhaps. A striking frontispiece? Definitely.

Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · Aug 28

One of the more interesting bindings to pass across my desk recently. #bookbinding #specialcollections #naturalhistorymuseum #blueskybooks #rarebooks

Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · Aug 9

The things I couldn't walk past this week, including a trip over the road to the V&A. #bookbinding #Incunabula #Endbands #marbling #VictoriaAndAlbertMuseum #RareBooks #shelfie

An open antique book photographed from one end. The marbled edge of the book is held by an endband of alternating blue and white.

Three photographs of a 15th century book. Top lett, the closed book showing a brown leather spine and marbled paper. Top right, an open page with blue painted U. Bottom, the book edge, with "Ruralia" inked on the edge.

Four coloured book spines titled "Siberia in Asia" and "Siberia in Europe". Spines left to right are brown, orange, tan, blue.

A closely cropped image of three stacked books. The lower two have marbled edges of blue, yellow, pink, and white.

Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · Aug 1

This week's encounters of the bookish kind. #SpecialCollections #NaturalHistoryMuseum #Bookbindings #MarbledDesigns #Endpapers #BlueSkyBooks #Shelfie

Two photos of a 5-volume set of books on a shelf. Each image shows 19th century marbling on volumes now in 20th century bindings.

A wooden library shelf holding 15 small notebooks bound in brown leather.

A split image showing a black and cream swirling pattern at left, and a black and white crocodile-skin pattern at right. Both are book covers.

A recurring design of purple lines and green leaves on a cloth background, in an Art Nouveau style.

Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · Jul 25

What distracted me this week at work. #SpecialCollections #Bookbinding #Endpapers #NaturalHistoryMuseum #tickets #Bookplates #BlueSkyBooks

Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · Jul 23

One day, I'll be able to walk through the stacks without getting distracted. One day. #bookbinding #tradebindings

Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · Jun 20

So many lovely books in @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social‬, so little time to spend with each... #Cataloguing #RareBooks #Provenance #Endpapers

Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · Jun 18

Thanks :-) No, no HD version -- some stripes are pretty low resolution as they're just a tiny sliver of a painting. But we'll work on it!

Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · Jun 18

Gloves (regardless of colour or material) affect your sense of touch, making it more likely to tear a page, whereas surgical-type gloves work protect shiny things like copperplates and photographs from fingerprints.

Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · Jun 15

Made from 100% endpapers and artworks from @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social collections.

NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · Jun 15

Because nature, libraries, and people are diverse. Happy Pride month! #pride #PrideMonth #LGBTQ

Pride flag composed of patterns from NHM Library items

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Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · Jun 6

Beautiful AND informative. That's how we like 'em here @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social (London: Penguin, 1943 & 1945) #Bookbindings #Fungi #NaturalHistoryMuseum

A hand holding two books on fungi with covers of decorative paper. Title at left is 'Edible Fungi', at right is 'Poisonous Fungi'.

Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · May 27

I suspect that, when making this, my enthusiasm for #bookbinding and #bookbindings triumphed over snappy post length...

NHM Library and Archives @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social · May 26

We're not asking you to *judge* a book by its cover (this one has some lovely artwork inside), just that you don't look past it! #Bookbinding #SpecialBooks #NaturalHistoryMuseum #Bookbindings #Doublure #FineBinding

Alt text: A video on the terminology, relative cost, and practice of binding books.

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Dr Grace Touzel @boundtobeused.bsky.social · May 27

Cataloguing ‪@nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social‬ collections brings all sorts of surprises -- I settled for "Two boxes of glass microscopic slides as reproduced in serial 'Studies in microscopical science' (1882-1887)". No eye of newt, but close! #cataloguing #SpecialCollections #NaturalHistoryMuseum

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