Advertising was done largely by means of the so-called “title post,” a sort of primitive bulletin board. On a post in the shop were put up the titles of new books on sale, with perhaps a brief bit of description. Books were sold either bound, stitched, or in sheets. The bindings in favor were leather-covered boards, perhaps vellum with silk ties to counteract the tendency of vellum to warp, or velvet and other textiles, often ornamented with elaborate embroidery. The books which were sold bound, however, were ordinarily in the plainer styles of binding. The more wealthy and particular book buyers preferred to buy their books in sheets and to have them placed in bindings which were ornamented with their coats of arms or with other devices of a personal nature. The stitched books were at first sewed by being pierced through the sheets with a bodkin and tied with a string. In 1586 a limit was set to the size and thickness of books which might be sold in this form. Those beyond the limit must be sewed on a regular binder’s machine and made ready for the cover to be put on. Sewed books were often covered with cloth or pasteboard to preserve them and keep them clean. This was substantially what is now known as binding in cases. For a long time the relations between printers, booksellers, and authors were confused and irregular. Up to the end of the seventeenth century there was nothing in the nature of copyright except registration with the Stationers’ Company, but that registration was made by the owner of the manuscript, who was not necessarily the author. Originally these owners were generally the printers because the printers and publishers, as has just been pointed out, were the same. Later, as the ascendency of the booksellers increased, it was they who held the manuscripts. Sometimes due regard was paid to the rights of the author and sometimes not. This appears to have depended entirely upon the arrangements which author and publisher were able to make. In many cases the author got decidedly the worst of the bargain. The protection which the Company undertook to extend was limited to the holder of the copyright. The situation was further complicated by the survival of privileges or monopolies of various sorts.