Earliest Known Dust Jacket Found at Oxford

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A librarian digging through the archives at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford has found the earliest known example of a publisher’s dust jacket. The dust jacket, which had been separated from the book it was created for, was found bound with other booktrade ephemera.

It belonged to:

Friendship’s Offering for 1830. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1829

Mark Godburn has more on this historic discovery at his website, 19th Century Dust Jackets.

The previous record holder, discovered by John Carter in 1934, was a jacket issued in 1832 on the English annual, The Keepsake for 1833.

Image courtesy of Bodleian Library, University of Oxford