ANTIQUE
(1) This has one specialized and superficially misleading use: for bindings (mostly calf or half calf) which are in fact modern but have been executed in the style of some earlier period. Alternative
descriptions for this tactful approximation to the book’s original dress would be ‘old-style calf ’, or ‘half calf, period style ’. Calf antique is also sometimes used to denote divinity (or
oxford) calf. Genuinely antique binding, if not precisely datable, will be described as original, contemporary, early, or simply old.
(2) A kind of paper, with a rough, uncalendered finish, either wove or laid.
Previous ABC’s of Book Collecting posts
Carter, John & Nicolas Barker
ABC’s of Book Collecting. 8th Edition
New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press, 2004
Thanks to Oak Knoll Press for permission to reprint