Miniature book

Today, most collectors consider a book to be miniature only if it is 3 inches or smaller in height, width, and thickness, particularly in the United States.

[1] Many collectors consider nineteenth-century and earlier books of 4 inches to fit in the category of miniatures.

Fine and popular editions alike grew in number throughout the 19th century in what was considered the golden age for miniature books.

[5][6] While some miniature books are objects of high craft, bound in fine Moroccan leather, with gilt decoration and excellent examples of woodcuts, etchings, and watermarks, others are cheap, disposable, sometimes highly functional items not expected to survive.

Today, miniature books are produced both as fine works of craft and as commercial products found in chain bookstores.

Victorian women used miniature etiquette books to subtly ascertain information on polite behavior in society.

[7] Along with etiquette books, Victorian women that had copies of The Little Flirt learned to attract men by using items already in their possession, such as, gloves, handkerchiefs, a fan and parasol.

It was an autobiography of Robert Hutchings Goddard, who invented the first liquid-propellant rocket that make space flight possible.

The appeal of miniature books was holding the works of prominent writers, such as William Shakespeare in the person's hands.

Made by gluing white paint to extremely thin film, the pages are hung from a tiny ring binder that allows them to be turned.

"[22] In 2007, archaeologists found a miniature Bible (Glasgow: David Bryce & Son, 1901) tucked into a child's boot hidden in a chimney cavity in an English cottage in Ewerby, Lincolnshire.

Many printers have created miniature books to test their own technical limits or to show off their skill.

Prominent historical figures who collected miniature books include President Franklin D. Roosevelt[36] and retailer Stanley Marcus.