What does it mean when a book is described as having uff, matt or lamoards?
‘Buff’ is the beigy colour typical of books published between 1960 and 1964. Originally there would have been a colourful dustwrapper covering these boards, so if a book has ‘buff boards’ and description of the book doesn’t mention a dustwrapper, you know that it must once have had one. Dustwrappers were designed to protect the book so over the years they often grew very tatty and either fell off or were removed. Books after 1965 were never issued with dustwappers – the cover picture was printed on the front cover and most books issued between 1965 and 1983 had covers with a dull, matt finish. From the late 1970s Ladybird began experimenting with ‘laminated’ covers. They proved more durable and cheaper to manufacture this way and all books after 1983 have a glossy, ‘wipe-clean’ finish, sometimes abbreviated in book descriptions to ‘lam’.
