“Judging a Book by its Cover” is the latest exhibition from Manhattan’s Grolier Club, a private members club and society for book lovers in New York. It was founded in 1884 and is the oldest bibliophilic club in North America. It is home to a 100,000-volume library, and now more than 100 of its most special editions are being displayed in an exhibition that celebrates book cover excellence.

The objects in the show span 700 years, with many examples pre-dating modern printing practices, to a time when artists would be commissioned by patrons to create unique covers for unbound manuscripts. The volumes on display include a white silk book of psalms embroidered with gold metallic thread dating to 1643, a miniature book of hours from 1673 featuring enamel portraits of saints and angels adorned with amethyst, and the embroidered cover of a history of embroidery created in 1888 by May Morris, the daughter of William Morris and Jane Burden Morris.

The curator of the exhibition and member of the Grolier, H. George Fletcher, said: “Bookbindings have always exerted a strong appeal on bibliophiles, constituting a major genre in collections of manuscripts and printed books … Over the scores of years, the club and our members have nurtured the craft of bookbinding by collecting historic examples, fostering the creation of new work by emerging artist bookbinders, and hosting scores of exhibitions. The collection is overwhelmingly the result of members’ generous gifts, from our early days to the present. The current installation, a large selection of both carefully preserved and overly loved examples, reflects our stewardship.”

“Judging a Book by its Cover” can be viewed in person until April 13 at the Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York City. More information about the exhibition available via the Grolier Club website.

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities and the Jewish War (1470). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

Gregory the Great, Letters (c. 1476).Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

Pope Nicholas I, Letters (1542). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

The Whole Booke of Psalmes (1643). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

Book of Hours (1673). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

Terence, Comedies (1642). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

Joseph Glanvill, Seasonable Reflections and Discourses in Order to the Conviction, & Cure of the Scoffing, & Infidelity of a Degenerate Age (1676). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

Almanach Royal (1757). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

Kalendario Manual y Guia de Forasteros en Madrid (1782). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

Bernardino Ridolfi, In funere Caroli III Hispaniarum Regis Catholici oratio habita in sacello pontificio (1789). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

Ernest Lefébure, Embroidery and Lace (1888). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

Lynd Ward, God’s Man: A Novel in Woodcuts (1930). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.

Svato Zapletal, Ich bin nur Flamme: Gedichte des Expressionismus (1999). Photo credit Nicole Neenan / Grolier Club.