The oldest-known book dust jacket has been discovered by a librarian in the Bodleian. The jacket, dated from 1830, wraps a silk-covered gift book entitled “Friendship’s Offering”.
Michael Turner, the Bodleian’s head of conservation, made the discovery when ordering an archive of book trade memorabilia bought by the Bodleian in 1892. The jacket had been removed from the book. It has been discovered when an American scholar of dust jackets contacted the library looking for the earliest known example.
Silk-bound books tend to be very vulnerable, so the dust jackets were used by booksellers to protect the binding. As a result, the jackets were often removed as soon as the book was bought. Thus, very few have survived.
