From animal skins to silks
https://bookriot.com/history-of-dust-jackets/
(Detail from Lost Art of Oz)
Funny to think that the staple of picture books (the book cover or dust jacket) had such an interesting evolution:
Excerpt from article: "The dust jacket emerged as a way to protect the gilt covers of leatherbound books. Instead of being rebound to match the owner's libraries, these books came with their own ornate binding. In order to keep the gold embossing intact—and protect the books from dust—booksellers or the printers would wrap the books in paper. These dust wrappers, as they were originally called, weren't proper dust jackets. They were plain pieces of paper that were sealed shut, and they were meant to only protect the book while it was at the store."
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