Current Events & Trends | February 2020 | Rebecca Rego Barry

Framed Book Covers Do Furnish a Room

Via Uncommon Goods

Uncommon Goods, the Brooklyn-based retailer of uniquely designed gifts, should be well known to bibliophiles, as it offers a host of wares with literary associations, running the gamut from bookends to library-scented candles to Jane Austen socks. A recent email to customers introduced a new arrival: “First Edition Book Cover Art Prints.”   

Printed on archival paper and framed in a birch shadow-box, the selected book covers include more than two dozen literary classics with appealing cover designs, from A Christmas Carol to Ulysses and then some. Although—and only extreme bibliophiles will quibble about this—they are not all truly “first edition” covers; exhibit A, Antigone, exhibit B, Frankenstein, exhibit C, Jane Eyre… Still, the images are crisp, revealing the wear and tear on the covers by actual readers. Each framed print is priced at $65.

Via Uncommon Goods

The designer behind these framed firsts, who goes by the name Mister Arthurious, is, according to Uncommon Goods: “Fascinated with the history of graphic design, he combs through flea markets and private collections hunting for vintage design ephemera magazines, books, catalogs, trade cards, antique maps, matchboxes, postcards and more. He collects and catalogs them in his New York City studio. Through his archives, Arthurious is able to draw inspiration from creative minds and techniques of times past. He makes high-resolution prints of some of his finds, and is working on a series of design publications that document his work.”

We say, the more ‘library chic’ the better. With apologies to Anthony Powell, author of Books Do Furnish a Room (1971).

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