A master's thesis. Table of contents, preface, acknowledgments, eight appendices. Discusses the development of publishers' bindings in Britain between 1820 and 1880. Endnotes, bibliography. Printed on recto only. Ball would go on to publish a reference book on bookbindings titled Victorian Publishers' Bindings (first published by The Librarian Association and then a U.S. edition by The Bookpress) in 1985.