outside-hook endleaves

An outside hook is a single leaf or bifolium of sheet material folded along the spine edge to create a stub which lies on the outside of the leaf, away from the textblock. Outside hooks can be found used on their own, in multiples or as one of several components within a single endleaf unit. A common type consists of a single piece of sheet material folded in half and then folded again along the folded edge to create a folded stub. Because this format does not allow the inside of the folded stub to be pasted, this type is rarely used as a pastedown. Outside hook endleaves were in regular use across Europe from the second half of the sixteenth and right through seventeenth century. They survived well into the eighteenth century, but were less popular in Britain than on the continent of Europe from the mid-seventeenth century. A popular continental variation was to use a sheet of decorated paper folded within a sheet of plain paper, and then to use the decorated paper as a pastedown. Where the outer full leaf is used as a pastedown (pasted on top of the stub or stubs), they can be a little difficult to recognise, but in almost all cases the sewing thread will be seen to tear though the fold along the spine edge of the pastedown, thus revealing their construction.