Tipped-in page

A tissue guard is a tipped-in page consisting of a sheet of thin, often semi-transparent paper that is inserted facing an illustration or plate image, primarily to prevent its ink from transferring onto the opposite page.

Tissue guards were once important because early book illustrations were commonly printed separately from the text, often by a different process such as lithography that employed a greasy ink that could transfer onto a facing page over time.

Typical uses of tipped-in pages added by the publisher include: Owners of books may also tip in such items as: Coffee table art books featuring high quality tipped-in color plates were popular starting in the late 1940s and into the 1980s.

[8] Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York also published many fine art books during this period with tipped-in plates, examples include the 56 volume series The Library of Great Painters published 1959–1985 with each book having ca.

48 "tipped-on colorplates"[9] or "hand-tipped plates in full color".