<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">The latter, though it's not terribly irregular, and I think more common in the "provinces" and in the 19th century. Without looking up the imposition in Gaskell (assuming it's there): When the sheets are cut apart, each half-sheet will further be cut apart to consist of a gathering of four (folded twice) and a gathering of two (folded once). The 2-leaf gathering will nest inside the 4-leaf gathering.<div><br></div><div>The 2-leaf gathering is thus the second unit of the whole 6-leaf gathering that constitutes the finished product, and is signed on the first page A2, B2, C2, etc.. All the binder needs to do is look at the first page of the 4-leaf gathering (signed A, B, C, ...) and then nest the related 2-leaf gathering inside it before sewing. So there's no need to sign every leaf, and A2, B2, C2, ... gets the pieces connected as they should be.</div><div><br></div><div>John Lancaster</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 2015 Jun 16, at 16:10, Will Evans <<a href="mailto:evans@bostonathenaeum.org">evans@bostonathenaeum.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple" style="font-family: BellMT; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1;"><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">Two 12mos (or what I think are 12mos) have crossed my desk in the past 24 hours each with gatherings of 6 leaves, one a 1787 New Brunswick, New Jersey imprint, the other an 1822 Dublin, Ireland imprint, and both have gatherings where the third leaf is consistently missigned as the second leaf (e.g. A3 is signed A2). Is this just a fluke, or am I missing some known irregular printing practice? </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">Best,</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">Will</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></u></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">Will Evans</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">Chief Rare Materials Catalog Librarian</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">Library of the Boston Athenaeum</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">10 1/2 Beacon Street</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">Boston, MA 02108</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;"> </span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">Tel: 617-227-0270 ext. 224</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">Fax: 617-227-5266 </span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;"><a href="http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: blue;">www.bostonathenaeum.org</span></a></span></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>