Size and Format
The Housekeeper’s Valuable Present is a duodecimo, abbreviated as 12mo. A duodecimo’s leaves are printed twelve at a time and is then cut and folded (MARC, 2011). It is 18 cm ( approx. 7 inches) tall.
Paper
There are no visible watermarks in The Housekeeper’s Valuable Present, and there is no note in the Library of Congress’s bibliographic record regarding the paper. The lack of lines that would be created by the production of laid paper combined with the publication date presumed to be around 1790 (predating the Fourdriner and mechanized paper production), the paper is most likely wove (Avrin, 1991, p. 295-297).
Foliation or Pagination
Table of Contents – pagination and signature marks.
Main text – pagination and signature marks.
The book consists of ten signatures, the first nine with six leaves each and the last with two. Pagination begins with the preface (page iv) and continues through the table of contents (ending on page xii). These first page numbers are printed in the header of each page, on the upper outside corner of each page. In the text itself, the pagination moves to the center of the top of each page and is set off by brackets. Signatures are marked at the bottom of pages.
Printer’s Device
There is no visible printer’s device in the Library of Congress’s copy.