Glossary

The purpose of this page is to outline and explain some of the terms you may come across when you locate a book on our inventory.

We endeavour to describe every one of our books as accurately as possible. This should enable you to buy with confidence, with any defects noted. Of course, if you are unsure on any points, please don't hesitate to contact us.

By their nature, secondhand books are rarely in the pristine condition that they enjoyed when they first left the publishing house from which they were issued (of course, there are exceptions to this rule - see my notes under Fine, below). But as a customer, you should be able to buy with confidence, knowing that any defects have been carefully noted.

If you receive a book that you believe has not been adequately described, or contains a fault that may have been overlooked, we will happily refund the total cost if it is returned within seven days of receipt.

Glossary of Terms

Following is a glossary outlining some of the terms I use when describing books for inclusion on my inventory. It is intended as a guide only; please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the description of a specific book.

Book Grades

Following is a glossary outlining some of the terms we use when describing books for inclusion on our inventory. It is intended as a guide only; please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the description of a specific book.

Book Grades

Fine : A pristine copy; no noticeable defects. Pages crisp and clean, dust jacket (where present), in fine condition, with no open or closed tears, chips, rubbing or flaws.
Very Good : A better than Good copy. Obviously not brand new, but with negligible evidence of having been read, in an excellent dust jacket (where present), with no, or very minimal, chips or tears. (Any chips or tears would normally be described in this instance.) A book described as Very Good may have an inscription or include the previous owner's name or award plate.
Good : A nice copy, sound in its binding, with no leaning, and relatively bright pages, with minimal foxing. A dust jacket (where present), may have rubbing at the edges, closed tears, and perhaps some chips missing, but in most cases, the front and rear jacket panels will be mostly whole.
Fair : A fair copy would make a good reading copy, but may not suit the fastidious collector. Defects could include substantial foxing, some leaning of covers, weakness to hinges, browning of pages, and wear to the binding. Boards may be rubbed on their faces or at the edges. A dust jacket, where present, could have substantial tears, chips and rubbing. Some preliminary pages (prelims) may be missing or loose.
Poor : A reading copy only.

Award Plates : you'll often find these in books of the first half of the 20th century. I believe that these (often decorative) indications of provenance actually add to the attraction of a book and form part of its evolving history. Here's one of my favourite inscriptions on an award plate in a children's book: 'Presented to Little Harry Harris for the Best Non-Attendance at Sunday School. He stayed away all the year, and then came for his Prize."(!) And yes, this is a genuine inscription!

Backstrip : see Spine.

Boards : a hardcover book.

Bumped : wear to the corners of a book's boards.

Closed Tear : a jacket or page may have a 'closed tear', which means that no fragments are missing; see also Open Tear.

Cocked : a book can become "cocked" when it has been mis-shelved. This may result in a lean whereby one of the covers protudes further over the book block than the other.

Contact Adhesive : I am not a fan of this "embellishment" to perfectly good books! This commerical product is often applied to school texts by fastidious parents to protect the covers of books that may spend a deal of their time in the bottom of school bags with mouldy sandwich crumbs and other dubious objects. A friend of mine donated her beautiful copy of Mrs Beeton's book of Cookery and Household Management to a small town library which duly covered the three-quarter leather volume in yes, you guessed it - plastic adhesive so that n'er a cake crumb could blemish its (once pristine) boards! Needless to say, I rarely stock books with this stuff! See also Mylar in this glossary.

Decorated Boards: this term refers to those wonderful books produced prior to and including the early 20th century that have decorative script and/or illustrations on their boards and spine.

Dust Jacket, Dust Wrapper : the removable paper jacket that protects the boards. The jacket is often illustrated.

Edges : the top, fore-edge and base of a book.

Endpapers : the front pasted endpaper (or pastedown) is the page that is pasted to the inside of the front board. Its partner, the free endpaper, forms the first page of a hardcover. At the rear of the book is the rear pasted endpaper, and rear free endpaper. Previous owners often leave their names on the front free endpaper, and this is where you might also find undying declarations of love from previous givers of the book in question. Which begs the question, why has the book ended up in a secondhand bookshop!

Ex-Library : I only keep the cleanest ex-library books here at The Known World Bookshop. I am not interested in books that are completely riddled with library stamps and have been so-well read that they are falling to pieces. Ex-library books will carry a cancelled stamp from the original library, and may have library labels or library pockets.

First Thus : the first appearance of a book in a new or slightly revised form.

Foxing : brownish age spots resulting from a chemical reaction caused by poor ventilation or dampness.

Frontispiece : usually a full-page illustration opposite the title page. In some older books, this may be tissue-protected, to stop ink from the illustration from leaching onto the title page.

Gathering : one of the sections of the book that make up the whole.

Gilt : if a book is described as having a 'title in gilt', this means that the title is gold. Some older tomes have either the fore-edge, or all edges, in gilt. Some titles may use silverfoil.

Hardcover : a book with boards.

Laminated Boards : those shiny boards often found on children's picture books and annuals.

Lean : see Cocked.

Mylar : a library-quality plastic cover that is tailor made for a particular book and placed over the jacket of a hardcover book to protect it. Should not be confused with Contact Adhesive. I cover all books with dust jackets in mylar. It can be removed without damaging the book.

Open Tear : an open tear suggests that a fragment of a page or jacket is missing.

Plates : full page illustrations that are produced separately from the book, and then added during the publishing process. In some instances, plates may not form part of the pagination, or sequential page numbering, of a book.

Rubbing : abrasions to board edges, or the result of wear and friction on boards or dust jackets.

Silverfishing : these nasty creatures may have left shallow trailing abrasions on pages or dust jackets. Sometimes they may have been so greedy as to cause holes through the page or dust jacket.

Softcover/card covers/paperback : often used interchangeably; ie, does not have boards.

Spine : the 'back' of the book, sometimes known as the Backstrip.

Three-quarter leather: a hardcover book with leather to the spine and the board corners.

Trade Paperback : usually refers to those larger format paperbacks produced in the last couple of decades.