pebbled

Pebbled cloth or leather describes the covering of a hardcover book with a decorative texture of repeated small raised bumps, somewhat resembling tiny pebbles one supposes. First introduced around 1860, pebbled decoration on the cloth or leather covering the boards of a book became a common method of adding a decorative texture and is still used in some cases by contemporary publishers, although more commonly now to give an antique appearance to a new book.