Communism Never Looked So Good

by Stephen J. Gertz

In 1884, after artist-poet-designer-printer William Morris compulsively read his copy of the first edition in French (1872-1875) of Karl Marx's Das Kapital until its flimsy binding was a wreck, he asked the great T.J. Cobden-Sanderson, then new to the craft of bookbinding but with enormous promise and taste, to rebind the book's first volume before it completely fell apart within his enthusiastic hands.

Morris, who had joined the new Social Democratic Federation, Britian's first fan club for Marx, shortly before wading into Das Kaptial waist-deep, was besotted with the German philosopher. He "was full of Karl Marx whom he had begun to read in translation" according to an April 13, 1883 entry in his friend Cormell Price's diary. Morris loved Marx's take on history but Marx's economics were another matter: Morris admitted that they caused him "agonies of confusion of the brain."

Despite the headaches, on March 14, 1883 Morris participated in a march to Highgate Cemetery where pilgrims congregated at Marx's grave to celebrate the anniversary of his death. 

This was the second binding by Cobden-Sanderson in his own workshop, the Doves Bindery (he had previously apprenticed with Roger de Coverly), a remarkable achievement for someone new to the art and craft.

After William Morris's death in 1896, Cobden-Sanderson, at the behest of Sydney Cockerell, then Morris's secretary, recorded the story of this binding on its lower end leaf:

"This book - Le Capital - was bound and tooled for William Morris by me in my first workshop on Maiden Lane 1884 and finished the 9th. October and the pattern on its sides and back is the second of my making. The tools were second hand and bought - and used - at haphazard, but the tooling and the binding pleased William Morris and his pleasure was my own great delight. In Memoriam I write this the 24th. February 1897. T.J. Cobden-Sanderson. I should like to add the book was his own & before it came to me to be bound had been worn to loose sections by his own constant study of it. T.J.C-S."

It is unknown what formal arrangements were made between Morris and Cobden-Sanderson beyond the presumed from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs.

I suspect, however, that Lenin would have proclaimed this binding of Das Kapital an example of  excess completely out of touch with simple, proletarian utility. The fact that it wound up in the collection of Estelle Doheny, heiress to her husband Edward's vast oil fortune, would have surely thrown him into a fit. Karl Marx finely dressed and living with a capitalist fat cat? Nyet!

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MARX, Karl. Le Capital. Traduction de M.J. Roy, entièrement révisée par l'auteur. Paris: Maurice Lachatre et Cie, [1872-1875].

Tidcombe, Cobden-Sanderson no. 2. Wormsley Library 81.

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Two Doves Bindings To Drool Over

by Stephen J. Gertz

Two Doves Press books bound at the Doves Bindery recently passed through my hands. In a swoon, I almost passed out.

"In 1893, when T.J. Cobden-Sanderson decided to give up bookbinding after a short career of less than ten years, he was already the most famous binder in England. The beauty and originality of his designs ensured that his bindings were sought after by collectors and and booksellers in both Britain and the United States" (Tidcombe, The Doves Bindery, p. 1).

Bookbindings personally bound by Cobden-Sanderson now fetch up to $50,000.

 

 Cobden-Sanderson did not, however, entirely give up bookbinding. In the same year as his "retirement," he established the Doves Bindery to carry out, under his personal supervision to his exacting standards, the physical binding of his designs.
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They are no less sought after by collectors than those bound by C-S himself. Why?

"From the beginning Cobden-Sanderson questioned every stage and aspect of bookbinding, and sought to improve on whatever he discovered to be shoddy in the way of materials and design, both structural and decorative" (ibid.).

Cobden-Sanderson not only designed all the bindings of The Doves Bindery (a total of 837), he designed the tools used to execute them, each unique and proprietary.

He disdained overly gilt bindings. "Some of the top trade binderies such as Riviere, Zaehnedorf or Fazakerley produced more lavish bindings, with onlays, tooling, and lettering covering not only the back, covers and doublures, but also the flyleaves. Cobden-Sanderson was opposed to such gratuitous excess, calling such bindings 'deplorable miracles of misapplied skill,' because the amazing ability of the finisher was wasted on such poor design" (Tidcombe, p. 84).

In contrast, Doves Bindings are without peer for their handsome sophistication, graceful elegance, stylish restraint, classically clean lines, and deceptive simplicity. It took an enormous amount of effort to make them seem effortless.

"The output of the Doves Bindery cannot be compared to other 'trade' binderies, because there was no other bindery quite like it...No bindery other than the Doves designed its own tools, produced all its own patterns, and worked to such a high standard, while also being so selective in the books it bound" (Tidcombe, p. 84).

 

The books of the Doves Press were routinely case-bound in limp vellum. Clients of the Press, however, were advised that they could have their copies specially bound at the Doves Bindery. Not many Doves Press books were thus bound, however, but those that were were unique; the Doves Press Shelley, for instance, was bound in brick red/terracotta leather for one customer. For another client, the Shelley was later bound in blue morocco with a completely different design.

The leather used for these two Doves bindings was not the usual morocco goatskin or calf. "Cobden-Sanderson ordered sealskins from Richardson's in Newcastles. He apparently liked it, as seal was used s an alternative to goatskin for binding many other Doves Press books. The sealskin used ranges in colour from orange to brick-red or terracotta, and some of the skins were probably specially selected by Cobden Sanderson for their attractive blotchy appearance" (Tidcombe, p. 94)

The Doves Bindery was and remains the finest and most respected bindery of its era, the evolutionary link between the Victorian Age in which it was born and the early Modern Age in which it thrived with the highest possible respect and admiration of collectors then and to this day.

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[DOVES BINDERY]. KEATS. John. Keats. [Poems Selected, Arranged and Printed by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson]. Hammersmith, The Doves Press, 1914.

First Doves Press edition, one of a limited edition of 200 copies on paper. Octavo (9 1/8 x 6 3/8 in; 232 x 162 mm). [11], 12-203, [1, blank] pp.  

Designed by Cobden Sanderson and bound at The Doves Bindery (stamp-signed "Doves Bindery 19 C-S 16") in full brick red sealskin with both sides by master finisher Charles McLeish featuring a three-line panel interlaced with a three-line strapwork lozenge with concave curves at sides, with a central wreath of rose leaves and stars with a sprig of three rose leaves above and below the wreath. Spine compartments with gilt panels. Gilt decorated turn-ins. All edged gilt with dotted fillet gauffering  Printed in black and white, and red.

Tidcombe, Doves Press 36. Tidcombe, Doves Bindery 791.

[DOVES BINDERY]. SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe, Shelley. [Poems Selected, Arranged, and Printed by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson at The Doves Press]. Hammersmith: The Doves Press, 1914.

First Doves Press edition, one of 200 copies on paper of a total edition of 212. Octavo (9 1/8 x 6 3/8 in; 232 x 162 mm). [6], 7-181, [1, blank] pp. Text in back and white, and red.

Designed by Cobden Sanderson and bound at The Doves Bindery (stamp-signed "Doves Bindery 19 C-S 14") in full brick red sealskin elegantly gilt paneled on both sides by master finisher Charles McLeish with a line panel with large open dot at each corner, and a smaller two-line panel extended inwards at the sides to form a lozenge, with a wavy lozenge inside, tooled in the center with a wreath composed of close-set narrow leaves, and a cloverleaf of three hearts on a stem at each corner of the panel and lozenge. Gilt decorated turn-ins. All edges gilt and with dotted fillet gauffering. Spine gilt in compartments.

Tidcombe, Doves Press 35. Tidcombe, Doves Bindery 792.

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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.
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Of related interest:

A Doves Binding To Die For.
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A Doves Binding To Die For

By Stephen J Gertz

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever." 

So Keats declares in the first line of Endymion (1818), and never has a poem so succinctly expressed the exquisite loveliness of  the binding it is found within, here an eleven on the 1-10 Drool Scale.

Bound by The Doves Bindery in 1894, this binding is a masterpiece of Arts & Crafts hand-work.

In full prussian blue morocco with a single gilt fillet frame and corner design of carnations,  three-pointed leaves, solid triangular tools, and gougework  enclosing a field of tiny gilt stars, its design is handsomely elegant, an aristocratic nature walk under a starlit dusk. The compartments possess massed stars and alternating carnation and leaf centerpieces. "1818" is tooled in gilt at the spine foot. The turn-ins feature leaf corner-pieces and triple fillets. All edges are gilt, with gauffered borders.

Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson (1840 – 1922) was an English artist and bookbinder closely associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. A friend of William Morris, Cobden-Sanderson was passionate about the movement, and once, during a dinner party with the Morrises, he was persuaded by Morris's wife, Jane Burden, to pursue bookbinding. He was a natural. He was an artist. He wildly succeeded. Ten years later he gave it up but in 1894 he opened a workshop, The Doves Bindery, at the urging of Morris. In 1900, he established the Doves Press, one of the most celebrated of the era's private press movement.

The  hand-work  is  breathtaking. The field  of  stars, for instance, is  tooled with a degree of  precision   usually  seen only with block-stamping. Each star  is delicate but not weak. Charles McLeish was the fiinsher at The Doves Bindery, carefully following Cobden-Sanderson's instructions and patterns. Cobden-Sanderson's artistic attention to detail is obsessive: he designed gauffered borders to each of the gilt edges. It's a very subtle touch, easily overlooked. George William Gwynne performed the bindery's edge gilding, either on the premises or at his own shop.

It should be noted that these gauffered edge-borders were not recorded in Tidcombe's descriptions; space precluded full details.

The Doves Bindery produced 828 bindings before closing to outside work in 1909. This binding, number 123 in Tidcombe's chronological catalog, was bound on October 9, 1894 for acclaimed New York art dealer, philanthropist, and co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904), who paid £18 for it.

With original pull-off box by Doves Bindery.

The book next passed into the hands of author, lecturer, bibliophile, political activist, etc. Louise Ward Watkins  (1890-1975) of Pasadena, California, who, amongst her many accomplishments, was the first California woman to run for United States Senate on a major party's ticket. A married woman of means, she was an avid and discerning book collector, her  collection second. perhaps, in quality (if not quantity) only to the library of her neighbor to the southwest in Los Angeles, Estelle Doheny (1875-1958).

 The binding recently returned to Southern California.

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[DOVES BINDERY]. KEATS, John. Endymion: A Poetic Romance.  London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 1818.

First edition, earliest issue, with only one line of errata and "Printed by T. Miller, Noble street, Cheapside" on verso to half-title. Octavo (8 1/2 x 5 7/16 in; 215 x 139 mm). [12], 207, [1, blank] pp. With the bookplate of Louise Ward Watkins,

MacGillvray 2. Tidcombe 123.

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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.

Accurate color reproduction is always a challenge, and the actual hue of the binding is that seen in the double-spread image of the spine foot.

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Genealogy: It's a Rare Book Thing

"Who are their people?"

That was my ancestry-obsessed Southern grandmother's first question about any new acquaintance. Breeding and background are a Southern thing; an obsession with bloodlines -- whether those of our neighbors, our horses, or our hunting dogs -- a value deeply woven into its culture. Perhaps that is why provenance, the rare book equivalent of genealogy, is such a fascination of mine; I am keen to know just who the people were who once owned and handled the books I come across in my work.

A formal yet touching presentation from husband to wife

One of my treasured possessions is a 19th century Steer's Universalist hymn book (above) inscribed by my however-many-greats-grandfather, Gen. John Baylis Earle, to his wife Ann. Another beloved book is a Moravian prayer book owned by great-grandmother's Aunt Rosa--a sort of fin-de-siècle Auntie Mame when she was a student at Salem Female Academy (or as she refers to it irreverently in one of her many margin notes, "Satan's Favorite Abode").

Rosa preserves flowers she received at a dance in April 1892 in her much-abused prayer book

Rosa used her prayer book for just about everything but it's intended purpose--it is filled with pressed flowers and billets-doux from her beaux and notes about her friends, foes, and social calendar. The page shown above preserves flowers she received at a dance in April 1892. A signature or inscription can bring the past vividly to life, as we consider where this book we hold in our hands has been and what is has meant to past owners.

One of my favorite tasks as a researcher for a rare book dealer is channeling my inner Nancy Drew to unearth tidbits of information about the people whose bookplates or signatures appear in the books I catalogue.

Sometimes, a book's provenance is an important selling point: A binding from the library of the collector Robert Hoe, founder of the Grolier Club and a very discriminating collector, is justly assumed to be of first-class workmanship and in fine condition. Hoe's rather demure morocco bookplate (above) is a seal of approval.

 The impressive armorial bookplate of the Earls of Macclesfield (above) testifies that a volume comes from one of the greatest private libraries ever assembled. Sometimes provenance research gleans an interesting bit of trivia that appeals to the imagination of some collectors. Research on Russian bookplate of Count Alexei Uvarov in an volume of English "conduct literature" (i.e., a book of deportment for young ladies) turned up the unexpected information that the owner had been a noted archaeologist whose educated and accomplished wife was the model used by Tolstoy for the character of "Kitty" in War and Peace.

A recent acquisition's provenance hit the trifecta: it combined a romantic story, a magnificent binding, and thrilling (to me, at least) associations.

A binding by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson.

The binding pictured above was executed by the greatest figure in modern English bookbinding, Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson (1840-1922). When C-S was casting about for some way to participate in the Arts and Crafts movement that flourished in England at the end of the 19th century, Jame Morris, wife of movement leader William Morris and muse of the Pre-Raphaelites, suggested he try his hand at bookbinding.

It turned out that C-S had an amazing sense of design and a real talent for the craft. The techniques he developed revolutionized bookbinding, and set the standards for a new generation. C-S completed his first binding in 1884, and two years later received a special request from a friend. Lady Clementine Mitford was in search of a unique gift for her husband's 49th birthday, and decided that a volume of poetry in a special binding would be just the thing for her book-loving husband, the diplomat Bertram Freeman-Mitford.

C-S notes in his journal that Mitford delivered the book, a large paper copy of Tennyson's The Princess, to him on 19 January 1885, with instructions that it must be completed on by her husband's birthday on 24 February 1886, but leaving the design, "mode and finish" entirely to C-S -- a wise decision.

The result is a binding covered with one of the earliest incarnations of Cobden-Sanderson's Tudor rose tool, the upper cover with the name "MITFORD" tooled in gilt, a "B" above it and a "C" below it, and with a score of Ms in the ogival compartment formed by the roses, and the lower cover cover with the baron's birthday "24 FEBRUARY 1886" and an interesting variation on the M decoration.

Detail of back cover.

The binder's notes about this work observe that "the design of back-side varies from front. The 'M' is inverted in the lower half [of the back]. This, an accident, [is] a great improvement. Time 54 3/4 hours. Undercharged."

Charming, no? But wait—there's more. Laid in at the back is a letter from C-S to Lady Clementine dated 23 February 1886, hoping that the binding, which he is sending "by a sure hand" arrives in time for the birthday celebration the following day.

Cobden-Sanderson's Signature on the letter to Lady Clementine

Artists. No sense of time whatsoever. No doubt poor Lady C was in a state worrying about her gift for the great occasion. Tipped onto the rear pastedown is the bill for the "undercharged" amount of £ 6.6.0 (the equivalent of approximately £3,350 today).

As readers who are fellow sufferers of Mitford mania know, the giver and receiver of this exquisite object are best known today for being the grandparents of the brilliant and scandalous Mitford sisters, including the Communist, activist, and journalist Jessica; Nazi sympathizers Lady Diana Moseley, wife of the leader of the British fascists, and the tragic Unity, who shot herself when war broke out between England and her beloved Fuhrer; Deborah Cavendish, the dowager duchess of Devonshire; and one of my favorite writers of all time, the inimitable Nancy Mitford.

Photo courtesy of NancyMitford.com

It is a thrill to know that this volume one resided in the library at Asthall Manor, the childhood home whose library Nancy lovingly recreated in her great novel Pursuit of Love, although its sterling condition makes it very clear that is was safely shut away from childish hands. Holding this book in my hand, I feel connected to the Mitfords.

Every book has a story, and a book can be a thrilling read, a rare treasure, an exquisite object, or all of the above. But a book can really come alive when you discover who its people are and what their story is. Breeding and background -- it's a rare book thing.
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Binding images courtesy of Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books & Manuscripts.
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