Illustration: Richard Grimm. Decorative endpaper design, 1904.
Although this article deals with decorative endpapers of the early twentieth century, it might be wise to describe firstly what an endpaper actually is. The endpapers of a book are the first leaves of paper before the title page and the last after the end of text. They are almost exclusively found in hard-back editions and were often a means of using decorative work that could sometimes, though not always, be linked to the subject of the book.
Probably one of the most famous of endpaper designs would be that produced by Reginald L. Knowles for the Everyman Library. Anyone who has come across an old Everyman title in a second-hand book shop will be familiar with the Knowles decorative endpaper as shown below. It was introduced in 1906 and was used extensively by Everyman until 1936. Millions of copies of varying titles were produced by Everyman, a relatively inexpensive publisher producing educational titles for the ordinary man.
Illustration: Reginald L. Knowles. Decorative endpaper design for the Everyman Library, 1906.
Knowles was by no means the only artist or designer who produced endpapers. They proved to be extremely popular towards the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth. They were particularly popular in both Germany and Britain and a whole range of names became associated with these decorative endpapers. Designers such as Erich Kleinhempel, Johann Vincenz Cissarz, Clara Moller-Coburg, Lily Behrens, Otto Prutscher and Dagobert Peche produced a number of innovative and sometimes unusual endpaper designs.
It is perhaps not surprising that endpapers became part of the decorative format of the times. Many of the book publications from the earlier nineteenth century tended towards standardised marble effect endpapers; these too can readily be found in second-hand bookshops. With the increase in book decoration through the use of creative bookbinding ideas as well as the serious expansion of book illustration as a professional medium, many of which were produced by the leading artists and designers of the day, it seemed only a matter of time before the decorative potential of the marbleised endpapers would also be seen as part of the decorative process.
Illustration: Leopold Stolba. Decorative endpaper design, 1904.
The five illustrations to this article perhaps give at least an indication of the range of styles and interpretations that could be found during one small period from 1903 to 1906. This is by no means the highlight or most intensive period of endpaper decoration, but one merely chosen to show what could be achieved by just allowing the decoration of the interior covers of a book. The designers: Leopold Stolba, Margarete Funke, R. Genz, Reginald L. Knowles and Richard Grimm, some of whom are better known names than others, each produced a distinctive style beyond the mere whims of decorative fashion and there is a definite creative strength in what is often seen as a relatively trivial and little known decorative format.
Although many endpapers used all over pattern work, some of which was reproduced in various colours depending largely on the type and production costs of the title, others used illustrative ideas that reproduced art work that reflected the title, no matter how obliquely. However, sometimes the endpapers were used for more practical purposes such as being used to reproduce maps that were also tied to the title.
Illustration: Margarete Funke. Decorative endpaper design, 1904.
Interestingly, many of the designers who produced decorative endpapers were also those involved in wallpaper design and it would be no stretch of the imagination to say that the ideas played out in decorative format and intuitive creativity in the wallpaper industry could also have been used for endpaper design.
Although a number of book covers and endpapers would have been designed by the same individual this was by no means always the case and some form of harmonious coming together of different artists and designer under one book project would have had to have existed, how these shared projects worked and how much interaction there was between bookbinder, endpaper designer and book illustrator, as well as the publisher, is unknown.
Illustration: R. Genz. Decorative endpaper design, 1903.
What is important is the fact that decoration can always be found in the most unlikeliest of places. It is not always the grand gesture that makes the most impact; often it can be the small scale and the familiar that stands the test of time. Knowles with his Everyman endpaper design with the famous quote of: 'Everyman, I will go with thee and be thy guide, In thy most need to go by thy side' was seen by countless millions over a thirty year period of production, but has remained a firm favourite through the second-book market for many decades after production, and although many may not have been aware of Knowles and his career, many were aware of the endpaper that was to sum up the Everyman Library for most.
Next time you find yourself leafing through some old books it might well be worth looking at the endpapers. The book might well not tell you who the artist or designer of the endpaper was, but it is another aspect of the decorative arts that bears some admiration, no matter how seemingly insignificant it might appear.
Anyone interested in the history of the Everyman Library might be interested in going to the Collecting Everyman's Library website.
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