leaf tab markers (Q861)

Small, usually rectangular, pieces of leather, parchment, paper or textile, often coloured or decorated, or even metal, which are adhered to the fore-edges of the leaves of a bookblock in order permanently to mark the locations of specific passages in a text, beginnings of sections, etc. They can be pasted on one side of a leaf or, if folded, to both sides of a leaf. Some folded leaf tab markers were folded tightly over the edges of the leaves, others project from the edge to a greater or lesser extent. The outer ends of some folded leaf tab markers were formed into turk's head knots. The inner ends only of leaf tab markers are sometime found preserved in books that have had their fore-edges cut as the result of rebinding. They may or may not be be numbered or lettered, and could be added at any time after a book was bound.