Editing Dust jacket (section)

== Early history ==
Before the 1820s, most books were published unbound and were generally sold to customers either in this form, or in simple bindings executed for the [[Bookselling|bookseller]], or in bespoke bindings commissioned by the customer. At this date, publishers did not have their books bound in uniform "house" bindings, so there was no reason for them to issue dust jackets. Book owners did occasionally fashion their own jackets out of [[leather]], [[wallpaper]], fur, or other material, and many other types of detachable protective covers were made for [[codex|codices]], [[manuscript]]s, and [[scroll]]s from ancient times through the [[Middle Ages]] and into the modern period.

At the end of the 18th century, publishers began to issue books in plain paper-covered boards, sometimes with a printed spine label; this form of binding was intended to be temporary. Some collections of loose prints were issued at this period in printed paper wrappings, again intended to be temporary. In the first two decades of the nineteenth century, publishers started issuing some smaller books in bindings of printed paper-covered boards, and throughout the 1820s and 1830s some small popular books, notably annual gift books and almanacs, were issued in detachable printed [[card stock|pasteboard]] sheaths. These small boxes are sometimes loosely and erroneously referred to as the first dust jackets. True publisher's bindings in [[Textile|cloth]] and leather, in which all, or a substantial part of, an edition were bound, were also introduced shortly before 1820, by the innovative publisher [[William Pickering (publisher)|William Pickering]].

===Oldest dust jackets===
After publishers' [[Bookbinding#Hardcover binding|cloth bindings]] started coming into common use on all types of books in the 1820s, the first publishers' dust jackets appeared by the end of that decade. The earliest known examples were issued on English literary annuals which were popular from the 1820s to the 1850s. These books often had fancy bindings that needed protection. The jackets that were used at this time completely enclosed the books like [[wrapping paper]] and were sealed shut with [[wax]] or [[glue]].

The oldest publishers' dust jacket now on record was issued in 1829 on an English annual, ''Friendship's Offering'' for 1830. It was discovered at the [[Bodleian Library]] in Oxford by Michael Turner, a former curator and Head of Conservation at the Library. Its existence was announced by [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] in 2009.<ref>See [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/24/earliest-dust-jacket-library "Earliest-known book jacket discovered in Bodleian Library"] (Michelle Pauli, guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 April 2009).</ref> It is three years older than the previous oldest known jacket, which was discovered in 1934 by the English [[Bookman (reading)|bookman]] [[John Carter (author)|John Carter]] on another English annual, ''[[The Keepsake]]'' for 1833 (issued in 1832).<ref>Carter, author of the classic ''ABC for Book Collectors'', reported his find in the September 22, 1934, issue of ''Publishers Weekly''</ref> Both jackets are of the type that completely enclosed the books.

Most jackets of this type were torn when they were opened and then discarded like gift-wrapping paper; they were not designed to be reused, and surviving examples are known on only a handful of titles. The scarcity of jackets of this type, together with the lack of written [[documentation]] from publishers of the period, makes it very hard to determine how widely these all-enclosing jackets were used during the period from 1820 to 1850, but they were likely common on ornately bound annuals and on some [[Paperback|trade books]].

The earliest known dust jackets of the modern style, with flaps, which covered just the binding and left the text block exposed, date from the 1850s, although this type of jacket was likely in at least limited use some years earlier. This is the jacket that became standard in the publishing industry and is still in use today. It is believed that flap-style jackets were in general use by the 1880s, and probably earlier, although the number of surviving examples from the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s is too small to prove exactly when they became ubiquitous, and again, there are no known publishers' records that document the use of dust jackets during these decades. There are, however, enough surviving examples from the 1890s to state unequivocally that dust jackets were all but universal throughout that decade. They were probably issued more often than not by the 1860s and 1870s in [[Europe]], [[Great Britain]], and the [[United States]].