Printers are a thrifty lot. Rather than throwing a perfectly good piece of scrap paper or vellum away they will use it to line spines or boards. Mary Yordy, Senior Conservation Technician, found this interesting printer’s waste in a multi-volume set of Balzac. We all love the groovy graphics.
The printer’s waste actually looks like mildew. I certainly wouldn’t have considered it something to examine closely. It could pass for a splatter art design by Jackson Pollock perhaps?
Carly–I think what you are commenting on is the cover material which is turned over the cover edges to the inside. The printer’s waste looks like a pattern for a craft project of some kind, circa 1830. This type of marbled paper on the cover is called Gustave Marmor and was popular in the 19th Century. It is still imitated today on the cover of composition books and file boxes.