Common Booksellers Terminology and Abbreviations

Booksellers Abbreviations - T, U, V, W & Y

A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I – J – K – L – M – N – O – P – Q – R – S – T – U – V – W – Y

WAF - With All Faults

TEG - Top Edge Gilt
Ties - Tapes or ribbons for tying the volume closed.
Tipped in - Lightly fixed in along one edge only, most often refers to illustrations.
TLS - Typed letter, signed.
Tooling - Decoration applied with a hand tool.
TP - Title Page.
Tree Calf - A highly polished calf binding with a distinctive tree-like wood veneer pattern.
TS - Typescript.

Unbound - Never having been bound. As opposed to Disbound.
Upper-case - A typesetting term that simply means capital letters.

V., VOL, VOLS - Volume/Volumes
Variant - Copies of the same impression exhibiting unexplained variations.
Vellum - A highly durable treated calf skin of a natural creamy colour.
Verso - Back of the leaf. The left hand page in an open book. The front of the leaf is the recto.
VG - Very Good.
Vignette - A small illustration enclosed in a formal or decorative border.
VY - Various years.

W/O - Without
WAF - With All Faults, sold 'as seen'.
Wraps - Paper covers.

Yapp - Style of binding with flaps that overlap the page edges. Named after the Victorian bookseller of that name, who in about 1860 made use of such a binding. Often he is attributed with the invention of this type of binding, however examples are known from the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Yellowbacks - Gaily coloured Victorian Books designed for display on railway bookstalls.

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