A Feast Of Fine Bindings

by Stephen J. Gertz

[Church of England]. The Book of Common Prayer…
London: W. and J. Wilde, 1699.
Binding by Richard Balley.

We've pulled out the white linen tablecloth, set the table with sterling dinnerware,  crystal champagne flutes, and platinum serving tray spread with fine bindings. Bon appetit!

Plunging necklines, sure. Backless bindings?

Seven "backless" bindings by Richard Balley, a late 17th century bookbinder in London, are known to have survived, and the above example is possibly the best preserved: because of their construction they opened poorly, were fragile, and easily fell apart. As such, they have little practical value and are noteworthy only because of their decorative nature; they are, at best, binding oddities. In the early eighteenth century the "wicked old biblioclast" and "the most hungry and rapacious" of book collectors, a bookseller who stood at the center of the London booktrade, John Bagford, wrote of Richard Balley that, "he hath contrived to bind a book that at sight you could not know the fore-edge from the back, both being cut and gilded alike, but this is a mere piece of curiosity, but still shows the genius of the workman."

FRENAUD, André. Enorme Figure de la Déesse Raison.
Paris: Joseph Zichieri, 1951.
Binding by Pierre-Lucien Martin.

Bound in 1967 in black goatskin after a design by Pierre-Lucien Martin (1913-1985) the above book is one of only twenty-four copies on papier pur chiffon d'Auvergne from a total edition of only thirty-four copies, this being copy no. 28.

Pierre-Lucien Martin studied bookbinding with Charles Chanat and design with Robert Bonfils and worked for several binders until winning the Prix de la Reliure Originale after World War II and opening his own bindery. Such was the demand for his work that he had to step away from actual binding and employ others as forwarders and finishers to execute his designs.

As here, lettering, multi-colored onlays, and trompe-l'oeil effects characterize much of his work

SUARES, André. Cirque.
Paris: Ambroise Vollard, 1933 (but unpublished).
Binding by Paul Bonet, 1956.

André Suarès' Cirque, featuring illustrations by Georges Rouault, was never published as planned. Only five copies, put together from disparate elements as maquettes by binder Paul Bonet between 1956 and 1959, have survived. Bonet designed their bindings, René Desmules forwarded, and André Jeanne finished them. Each is slightly different, a variant of the above example.

LUCIUS APULEIUS. De Cupidinis et Psyches Amoribus fabula anilis.
London: Ballantyne Press for he Vale Press, 1901.
Binding by Sibyl Pye.

Anna Sybella Pye, aka Sibyl, (1879-1958) is considered to be one of the most original bookbinders of the twentieth century. She began binding in 1906, met Charles Ricketts, whose bindings for his Vale Press she greatly admired and became her primary influence. He designed tools especially for her, including a few for this binding but most here are of her own creation. Here and elsewhere she specialized in inlaid bindings, excising the foundation leather and fitting leathers of other colors into the empty space, a much more difficult technique than onlaying, the far simpler and common method of applying thin leather atop the foundation. Her bindings were exhibited in Europe and and here in America. Her best work dates from 1925-1940.

BUNYAN, John. The Pilgrim's Progress.
[Shakespeare Head Press for]:
London: The Cresset Press, 1928.
Binding by Philip Smith, 1972.

Profiles In Binding: Philip Smith was born in 1928 and in 1972 designed the above binding shaped to a head in profile at board's fore-edge, the head in question that of the Pilgrim of title, his progress limned in the elaborate scenes symbolically depicted in different leathers.

In 1957, Smith joined the bindery of Douglas Cockerell & Son (Sydney Morris Cockerell). In 1961 he established his own shop to work as an creative book artist.

LUCIANUS SAMOSATENSIS. Dialogues.
Paris: Tériade, Théo Schmied, 1951.
Binding by Rose Adler, 1952.

Born in Paris, Rose Adler (1890-1959) designed jewelry, clothes, furniture, toiletry items, even mirrors but she is best known for her bookbinding designs, which later in her career became simplified, relying upon her choice of colors and mix of calf and goatskin leathers. 

She did not execute her binding designs but, rather, depended upon skilled craftsmen of her choice, which, more often than not, was, as here, Guy Raphaël, a long-time collaborator.

[Sammelband of Seven German Protestant Theological Works].
Breslau: Scharffenberg, 1573-1575.

The above volume is bound as a Sechsfächerband, a six-fold binding that can be opened in one of six different directions, revealing one book at a time. These type of bindings are generically known as Vexierbücher (puzzle or tease books, i.e. bindings that vex). As with Balley's backless bindings, multi-fold bindings are structurally weak and fall apart if stared at too hard for too long.

Produced from the mid-sixteenth century forward, they are primarily found on religious and devotional books. Why?

It appears that they provided quiet, unobtrusive amusement during long church sermons. As sacrilegious as this may seem, it's innocence itself compared to playing cards or little games during religious services; two examples of six-fold bindings on devotional books from the mid-late sixteenth century contain little boxes to store cards, etc.

In the late fourteenth century, Jean de Charlier de Gerson (1363-1429), famed doctor of theology, religious orator, and chancellor of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, condemned the playing of cards in church. His complaints were, evidently, ignored. Churchgoers continued to struggle against boredom, whether playing cards, twiddling thumbs, or amusing themselves with curiously bound prayer books.

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All images reproduced from The Wormsley Library: A Personal Selection by Sir Paul Getty (Maggs Bros./Morgan Library, 1999), with our thanks. If you love fine bindings, this book, the catalog to the Morgan Library's exhibition, is a must for your shelf. 

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Of Related Interest:

Magnificent Bindings, Bound To Be Great. 

The Guild of Women Binders, Bound To Be Great.

More Magnificent Bindings, Bound To Be Great.

The $65,000 Binding, Bound To Be Great.

Drop-Dead Gorgeous Bindings, Bound To Be Great.
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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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"One Of The Most Beautiful Books Ever Created" Reaps $415,937 At Sotheby's

by Stephen J. Gertz

CENDRARS, Blaise & DELAUNAY, Sonia.
La Prose du Transsibérian et de la Petite Jehanne de France.
Paris: Editions des Hommes Nouveaux, 1913.

Box (above) by Paul Bonet after Sonia Delaunay.

Est. at 40,000 - 60,000 EUR ($53,173 - $79, 972).
Sold for 312,750 EUR ($415,937, incl. premium).

Four twentieth century illustrated books, in astonishing bindings, out of a total of 190 lots, sold for over $100,000 each at Sotheby's - Paris in their Livres Illustrés de la Biblioitheque R. & B.L. sale, March 28, 2012.

A fine, first edition copy of Blaise Cendrars' collaboration with artist Sonia Delaunay, La Prose du Transsibérian et de la Petite Jehanne de France, in a chemise and box by Paul Bonet, brought the highest price.

It was estimated to sell for $53,173 - $79, 972 (40,000 - 60,000 EUR).

It fell under the hammer at $415,937 (312,750 EUR, incl. premium).

Cover.

 Called "one of the most beautiful  books ever created" when Yale University Press reissued it in 2008, and a milestone in the evolution of artists' books by Joanna Drucker in The Century of Artists' Books (p. 50), it is "a sad poem printed on sunlight," according to Cendrars, who published it under his New Man Editions imprint.  Comprised of four sheets glued together to form an accordion (fold-out) binding 199 centimeters tall when opened, only sixty copies out of a planned 150 were issued, and of those sixty only thirty are believed to have survived.

BONNARD, Pierre. VERLAINE, Paul. Parallélement.
Paris: Ambroise Vollard, 1900.

Binding by E.-A. Séguy.

EST. 30,000 - 40,000 EUR ($39,901 - $53,173).

Sold: 78,750 EUR (($104,673, incl. buyer's premium).

A copy of Paul Verlaine's Parallélement, illustrated by Pierre Bonnard, and in an stunning binding by E.-A. Séguy, was estimated at $39,875 - $53,173.

It fell under the hammer at $104,673 (incl. buyer's premium).

It was issued in an edition of 200 copies featuring 190 lithographs by Bonnard. Of the twelve copies, in original wrappers or rebound, that have come to auction since 2000, the highest hammer price was  $44,500 at Sotheby's June 11, 2002 for a copy bound by J. Anthoine Legrain. The scarce binding by the great Séguy accounts for the $60,000 difference.

Decorator and designer, Eugène-Alain Séguy (1890 - 1985), produced only a few bindings during his career. He is best known for his work in the graphic arts and textile design, including folios of Art Nouveau and Art Deco-inspired design models in lush pochoir that he published 1910 - 1930.

TEMPLE, Guillaume. ERNST, Max. Maximiliana.
ou L'Exercise Illégal de L'Astronomie.
Paris: Le Degré Quarante-et-un, 1964.

Binding by P.-L. Martin

Est. 50,000 - 70,000 EUR ($66,501 - $93,104).
Sold 84,750 EUR ($112,733).

One of seventy copies on Japon Ancien paper, each signed by the artist and editor, Maximiliana, Max Ernst's collaboration with Guillaume Temple, is graced with thirty-four watercolors by the Dada pioneer. This copy, in a binding by P.-L. Martin,  contained an extra, unpublished watercolor by Ernst. 

Estimated at $66,501 - $93,104  it fell under the hammer at $112,733 (incl. premium).

DALI, Salvadore. LAUTREAMONT, Comte de.
Les Chants de Maldoror.
Paris: Skira, 1934.

Binding by George Leroux (1993).

Est. 40,000 - 60,000 EUR ($53,173 - $79, 972).
Sold 78,750 EUR ($104,673, incl. buyer's premium).

Salvadore Dali's illustrations to Le Comte de Lautréamont's Les Chants de Maldoror are considered to be his best book work. Issued in a total edition of 200 copies on vélin Arches, this copy, in a masterful, 1993 binding by Georges Leroux, is one of forty signed by Dali and containing an extra-suite of illustrations.

Estimated to sell for $53,173 - $79,972, it realized $104,673 (incl. premium).

BRAQUE, Georges. APOLLONAIRE, Guillaume.
Si Je Mourais La-Bas?
Paris: Louis Broder, 1962.

Binding by George Leroux after Braque.

Est. 40,000 - 60,000 EUR ($53,173 - $79, 972).

Sold 60,750 EUR ($80,812, incl. premium).

Many of the remaining lots realized five figure prices, not the least of which was a copy of the Georges Braque-illustrated edition of Apollonaire's Si Je Mourais La-Bas?, its eighteen colored woodcuts considered to be Braque's most important book illustrations. Issued in a total edition of 180 copies, the copy above, bound by Georges Leroux after Braque motifs, is one of forty with an extra suite of color woodcuts, each signed by Braque.

Estimated at $53,173 - $79,972, it sold for $80,812 (incl. premium).

[BRAQUE, Georges]. TUDAL, Antoine. Souspente.
Avec Une Lithographie en huit Couleurs de Georges Braque.
Paris: Robert Godet, 1945.

Binding by Thérèse Moncey.

Est. 2,500 - 3000 EUR ($3,325 - $3,990).
Sold 5,000 EUR ($6.650, incl. premium)

Even the stragglers - those modern illustrated books that sold below $10,000 - were impressive.

Braque's contribution to Antoine Tudal's Souspente is a lithograph in eight colors that is considered Braque's best such. This copy is one of an edition of 125.

Not much is known about the binder, Thérèse Moncey, beyond that she worked in Paris 1945-1965, and won a grand prize of French binding in 1950.

Estimated to sell for $3,325 - $3,990, it sold for $6.650 (incl. premium).
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Images courtesy of Sotheby's, with our thanks.
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A Magnificent Padded Onlay Pictorial Binding

by Stephen J. Gertz

Yesterday, we looked at inlaid pictorial bindings by Chris Lewis 1960-1980. Today, we examine a beautiful onlaid pictorial binding by Riviére & Son, c. 1920s, just a few years before Bayntun of Bath acquired and merged the firm into its operations.

GILBERT, W.S. The "Bab" Ballads.
London: John Camden Hotten, 1869.

Bound c. 1920s by Riviere & Son.

The difference between an inlaid and onlaid binding suggests itself. Inlaid bindings involve placing varicolored pieces of cut and shaped leather into a matching, excised section of the main leather covering as a mosaic. The set-in pieces are generally flush with the surface or ever so slightly raised. 

GILBERT, W.S. More "Bab" Ballads.
London: George Routledge, n.d. [1872].

Bound c. 1920s by Riviere & Son.

With onlaid bindings, the cut and shaped pieces are applied atop the main leather cover as a mosaic. In this example, the finisher (alas, unknown) went the extra distance and padded the pictorial onlays to bring them into high-relief, and how. The resulting scene pops off the background as sculptured leather with depth and contour.

Angle shows high-relief.

Robert Riviere (1808–1882), bookbinder, was born in London in 1808. Upon leaving school, in 1824, he apprenticed with Messrs. Allman, the booksellers, In 1829 he established his own book shop. In 1840 he established his own business as a bookbinder.

The excellent craftsmanship and fine taste demonstrated by his bindings gradually  Riviére the attention of connoisseurs, and he was employed by the Duke of Devonshire, Mr. Christie-Miller, Captain Brooke, and other great collectors. He also bound for the queen and the royal family.  He won
 a medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851 for his work.

Riviére's bindings, in the quality of materials, forwarding, finishing, and delicacy of the tooling deserve all the praise a binder can hope hope for. His bindings are wonderful specimens of artistic taste, skill. But though Riviére seldom strayed from traditional binding styles, the work of Riviére & Son remains the standard for quality and master craftsmanship.

Riviere bequeathed his business to this son-in-law in 1880, and the name of the firm was changed to Riviere & Son. Bayntun of Bath acquired Riviere  c. 1930.

Close-up: Note high-relief against background.

Not incidentally, biting, satirical, absurdist ballads were what W.S. Gilbert was up to before he  partnered-up with Arthur Sullivan, H.M.S. Pinafore, etc., to come. "Bab" as in "baby" was his nickname, his verse,  accompanied by his own comic illustrations, became extremely popular in FUN, a weekly mag, when they first appeared c.1865, and, by 1869, here we are, the first collected edition of The Babs Ballads with a first of it's follow-up, bound with a state of the craft padded onlay pictorial scene within a sunken panel bordered in gilt and framed by a broad, extravagant, exuberantly gilt decorated border with peacock-feather tooling because this binding has a lot to be proud of.

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[RIVIÉRE & SON, binders]. GILBERT, W.S. The "Bab" Ballads. [together with:] More "Bab" Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense. London: John Camden Hotten [and] George Routledge and Sons, 1869 [and] (n.d., i.e. 1872).

First editions. Octavo (7 1/8 x 5 1/8 in; 180 x 128 mm). ix, [2], 14-222, [4, adv.]; viii, [1], 224, [4. adv.] pp. Black and white frontispieces with tissue guards, black and white text illustrations throughout.

Bound c. 1920 by Riviere & Son in full emerald crushed morocco with a broad, elaborately gilt decorated frame with floral spirals, peacock feather corner pieces, and peacock feathers at the mid-points, enclosing an ovate, gilt-bordered and decorated sunken central panel within which are figures from the text pictorially depicted with multi-colored, padded morocco onlays. Lower board with double fillets and gilt decorated corner pieces. Gilt-rolled raised bands. Gilt decorated compartments. Wide turn-ins with gilt corner pieces. All edges gilt. Moire silk endpapers. Gilt-rolled edges.

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The Mark of Zaehnsdorf

by Stephen J. Gertz

Out of the night,
When the full moon is bright,
Comes the binder known as Zaehnsdorf.
This bold renegade
Carves a "Z" with his blade,
A "Z" that stands for Zaehnsdorf.

Zaehnsdorf! Zaehnsdorf! 

Bookbinder so cunning and free,
Zaehnsdorf! Zaehnsdorf! 

Who binds with the sign of the Z.

Zaehnsdorf Business Card, 1873.

On February 14, 1816, when the full moon was bright in Pesth, Austria-Hungary, Joseph Zaehnsdorf came out of the night of gestation and into the binder's day of birth.

UZANNE, Octave. Son Altesse, La Femme.
Paris: A. Quantin, 1885.
Contemporary binding by Zaehnsdorf.
Blue-gray crushed morocco, covers framed with single rule
around very broad and intricate floral border of many leaves,
blossoms, and tendrils enclosing a central field of rows of
alternating flowers and small stars, raised bands, spine
compartments similarly decorated, very handsome densely
gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt.

At age fifteen he began his career as a binder, apprenticing with Kupp in Stuttgart. After completing his obligation to Kupp, he worked for Stephan, a leading binder in Vienna. He then became a journeyman bookbinder for firms in Zurich, Freiburg, Baden-Baden, and Paris before finally settling in London, in 1837, where he found employment with Westley & Co. 

 

This was a time of great upheaval in the bookbinding trade. Mechanization was establishing itself and tension between employers and the Bookbinders' Trade Society finally resulted in major firms firing any member of the Society. Zaehnsdorf found employment with James Mackenzie, one of London's finest binders and Bookbinder to the King. In c. 1842, he established his own shop.

SHAKESPEARE, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream.
London: William Heinemann, 1908.
Exhibition binding stamp-dated 1909.
Full salmon crushed morocco with gilt tooled borders,
large sumptuously gilt corner devices inlaid with black
morocco dots, elaborately gilt decorated compartments
with black inlaid dots. Salmon silk endpapers. Wide gilt
decorated dentelles. Top edge gilt.
Blind exhibition stamp to rear pastedown endleaf.

It was rough going but by 1851 the name Zaehnsdorf was found in the London Directories. Mechanization had made craft bookbinding difficult to pursue for the artisan but by perseverance, deep knowledge of his craft, and luck, Zaehnsdorf, after twenty years of struggle was, by 1861, receiving regular commissions. In 1862 he received honorable mention at the London International Exhibition and became a member of the Royal Society of Arts. He began to win exhibition medals. His prestige grew.

From Zaehnsdorf's brochure, The Binding of a Book (1890).

Zaehnsdorf died in 1886. His eulogy reads, in part: "...as a businessman, he was of high and unimpeachable character, upright, and straightforward in all his transactions, which won for him the esteem of all his business friends and everyone who came in contact with him.

"...Having risen from the ranks....from being a working man, he knew well, and never forgot the troubles, anxieties, and cares which befall so many of us in our humble station in life...his advice, his experience, and what is more, his purse, were always ready and open to assist any one of us who were deserving of it."

JAMI. Salaman and Absal: An Allegory.
London: J.W. Parker and Son, 1856.
Early 20th century binding by Zaehnsdorf.
Covers with multiple-rule frame and central panel containing
25 gilt flowers in rows, each flower with a long, curving leafy
stem,  the background accented with tiny gilt dots and crescents,
raised bands, spine gilt in compartments featuring alternating gilt
blossom and twining vines, gilt turn-ins, light brown silk endleaves.

His son, Joseph William, formally took over the business; he had already been running it after serving an apprenticeship with a binder in Cologne and then with his father. Joseph William further developed the business and its reputation. He wrote a book, The Art of Bookbinding (1880), important for being one of the first English manuals of substance on the craft.

J.W. made innovations to the craft, not the least of which was offering bookbinding classes to women who, during the Arts & Crafts Movement, had become interested in pursuing binding as a personal means of expression. He taught Sarah Prideaux,who later established herself as a fine binder of lasting repute.

J.W. and E.J.W. Zaehnsdorf took elements from two woodcuts by
Jost Amman, the wall tools at upper right in one and the
hammerer at lower right to the other, to create their bookplates.

His son, Ernest J.W., learned the trade and managed the business after his father retired in 1920. By now the firm had earned an international reputation, honors, and appointments as royal binders, and Ernest continued along his father's path, providing classes, and writing prolifically about the art and craft of bookbinding. He continued with the firm his grandfather established until his retirement in 1957.

BROWNING, Robert. Some Poems by… Eragny Press, 1904.
Contemporary binding by Zaehnsdorf.
Covers ruled in gilt, with an inlaid olive green morocco frame decorated
with gilt scrolling foliation and inlaid pink morocco roses, raised bands,
spine compartments similarly decorated with gilt and inlays, turn-ins gilt
with an inner toothed roll, ruled borders, and foliation, top edge gilt.

Though Zaehnsdorf was renowned for producing the finest quality and execution of work, the firm was not an innovator in binding design. They tended to imitate the styles of the past per their wealthy clients' requests. As a result, volumes bound by Zaehnsdorf are found in some of the great collections of books, whether still in private hands or now at major institutional libraries.

That said, Zaehnsdorf did, on occasion, break with the past. With the exception of the exhibition binding above, the bindings here show the influence of the Arts & Crafts movement and may have been executed by Lewis Foreman Day, a free-lance designer for the firm, who wrote The Application of Ornament (1891) and Lettering in Ornament (1902). Each generation of Zaehnsdorf shared the same aesthetic, a resistance to grandiose, over the top, all stops pulled out bindings that overwhelmed the book. They may have been imitative of general styles but Zaehnsdorf never aped the gorgeous yet gaudy, rococo bindings of Sangorski & Sutcliffe or Riviere. For Zaehnsdorf, the binding was in service to the book, not an excuse to show-off at the book's expense.

Zaehnsdorf's standard gilt-stamped signature.

The faint blindstamp of a binding hammerer to the rear endleaf
was Zaehnsdorf's proud mark for exhibition bindings.

Zaehnsdorf was acquired by department store (with a rare book department) Asprey of London in 1983, who then merged it into their earlier bindery acquisition, the great  Sangorski & Sutcliffe, but retained the Zaehnsdorf prestige identity and, the whole point of the acquisition, the Zaehnsdorf purpose-built factory to house both. In 1998, Shepherds Bindery in London bought the two famed binderies from Asprey; they retained the Sangorski & Sutcliffe brand but dropped the Zaehnsdorf name, 156 years after Joseph Zaehnsdorf rode out of the night when the full moon was bright to carve a Z with his binding blade and leave his mark on the art, craft, and trade of bookbinding.

Zaehnsdorf!

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With the exception of the exhibition binding blindstamp and 1909 exhibition binding (David Brass Rare Books) all images courtesy of Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Medieval Manuscripts, with our thanks.

Text images from Frank Broomhead's The Zaehnsdorfs (1842-1947): Craft Bookbinders (Ravelston: Private Libraries Association, 1986).

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Magnificent Bindings, Bound To Be Great

by Stephen J. Gertz

It's Bound To Be Great Week at Booktryst. Each day, we'll post a story devoted to some of the most spectacular book bindings you'll ever see.

As jaws will drop and drool will, uh, drool, you may wish to don a bib before proceeding to read. As drooling has continued to be an issue for me since the playpen era I routinely wear one for all occasions. I have a few. They're emblazoned, My Other Bib is a Hugo Boss; I Can't Wait To Learn How To Read; and, natch, I Burp For Fine Bindings.

LACTANTIUS. Des Divines Institutions Contre les Gentils & Idolatres.
(Lyon: Imprimé par Balthazar Arnoullet [pour] Guillaume Gaseau, 1547).
A contemporary entrelac-style binding.

The contemporary French binding above is in the entrelac (interlaced) style and is an enchanting example of French Renaissance refinement. The covers feature a complex strapwork pattern tooled in gilt and painted black and white, the design comprising borders, interlaced squares, and complex scalloped and spade-like panels, with a green-painted oval at the center, the original flat spine (remounted in the 19th century and with small restorations) diapered, with each lozenge enclosing a thick dot, all edges gilt.

This binding likely originated in Lyon, where many of the best entrelac bindings were executed during the reigns of Francis I and Henry II. Influenced by Islamic models, entrelac decoration made its way through Italy and into southern France, where it adorned some of the finest bindings of the period. During this time, the use, as here, of painted inlays or onlays was considered to be the height of French bibliopegic fashion and one of the most charming manifestations of the elegance of the Renaissance in France. Goldschmidt, for example, calls these bindings "great artistic creations" that represent "the highest achievements in the art of bookbinding in the Renaissance period."

PALGRAVE, Francis Turner. The Golden Treasury of the
Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language.
London: Macmillan & Co.,1867.
Binding by John Ramage, c. 1867.

This lovely contemporary, ornately gilt and inlaid scarlet morocco binding by John Ramage features covers with a wide and very intricately gilt frame bordered by plain and dotted rules, the frame of alternating inlaid green and brown morocco (the former pyramid shapes, the latter strapwork quatrefoils), the whole densely tooled in gilt, central panel with floral cornerpieces, raised bands, spine lavishly gilt with the quatrefoils repeated as centerpieces against a ground of many small tools, turns-ins attractively gilt, ivory watered silk endleaves, all edges gilt.

Born in London in 1836, John Ramage served an apprenticeship with John Wright, then went to Paris, where he was able to work with the distinguished Marcellin Lortic (1822-1892), who opened his shop on the Rue St. Honoré in 1840. In 1860 Ramage purchased the binding business of Alexander Banks, Jr., in Edinburgh, then returned three years later to London, where he was in business at various locations into the 20th century. Though the range of their designs is broad, Ramage bindings are celebrated for their remarkably delicate, careful, and elaborate gilt work.

BAÏF, Lazare de. Annotationes in L. II. de Captivis, et Postliminio
Reversis. In Quibus Tractatve de re Navali.  [and three other works].
Paris: Robert Estienne, 1536.
Contemporary binding by the Dudley Binder (?).

The striking, heavily gilt sixteenth century English calf binding above features covers gilt with a border formed by two plain rules flanking a floral roll, the frame enclosing a central field of many tiny star tools, intricate strapwork cornerpieces, and large central arabesque composed of strapwork interspersed with lilies and volutes; flat spine divided into latticed gilt panels by double plain rules and floral bands.

It's a lovely 16th century English decorative binding  similar to the work of the artist whom Nixon dubbed the "Dudley Binder," for the work he did for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. The central panel, with its oval medallion and ornate cornerpieces, is typical of the Dudley Binder's work (see, for example, items #16 and 17 in Nixon's Five Centuries and Foot's Davis Gift, #43).

GAUTIER, Theophile. Miltona.
Paris: Librarie L. Conquet, 1887.
Contemporary binding by Gruel.

This beautiful, elaborately gilt and inlaid contemporary beige crushed morocco  by Gruel features covers with an outer frame of multiple strips of ochre and turquoise morocco outlined in gilt enclosing a large beige panel in the form of a Moorish-style window with pointed arch top, inlaid with 14 pink morocco rosettes and 39 lotus blossoms in two shades of blue morocco. The window opens onto a panel of turquoise morocco,  with the title inlaid in beige and blue morocco on the upper cover. Raised bands,  compartments framed by turquoise morocco and containing a spray of inlaid lotus blossoms, turn-ins with turquoise and gilt-rule frame, pastedowns of tangerine silk, free endleaves of scarlet silk, and all edges gilt finish this distinctive binding.

Gruel was one of the most famous and important "fin de siècle" French binders. In her Bookbinders and their Craft, Prideaux says that the Gruel firm, founded in 1811, "always had the highest reputation . . . for initiative in artistic matters, as well as for irreproachable execution in the detail of its many-sided achievements."  The list of binders who trained at the Gruel atelier is the most distinguished in Europe. Léon Gruel (1841-1923), who took over the firm in 1891, was the single most famous person associated with the bindery. He led the campaign for acceptance of revolutionary ideas in the decoration of modern bindings. The Moorish-influenced architecture of Spain has inspired this Gruel binding, and there are elements of Art Nouveau in the design, particularly in the floral decoration.  The binding is animated and delicate in design as well as flawlessly executed.

GRANDJEAN de MONTIGNY, A. and A. Famin. Architecture
Toscane, ou Palais, Maisons, et Autres Edifices de la Toscane.
Paris: P. Didot l'Ainé, 1815.
19th C. binding by F. Hromada.

This highly dramatic, elaborately decorated in gilt and blind, inlaid and painted by F. Hromada features an upper cover with thick- and thin-ruled gilt and black borders enclosing an elegant frame with shell-like cornerpieces formed by gilt and inlays painted green and white, the frame enclosing a large central title cartouche supported by two lovely gilded mermaids emerging from a foamy spray. The lower cover has intricate inlaid strapwork in black extending the length of the cover, floral gilt cornerpieces, inlaid red and green morocco ornaments (at the middle of each side), and azured gilt decoration at various locations. Raised bands, spine gilt in thick- and thin-ruled compartments, multiple-ruled gilt turn-ins, all edges gilt, and leather hinges complete this marvelous work.

Francisco (Frantisek) Hromada was a Czech active as a gilder in Valparaiso, Chile from about 1858 onward. According to Holley and Espinosa, Hromada was, with Adolfo Boehme and Enrique Ahrens, one of the most distinguished Chilean binders of his day. While this large-format binding may (or may not) have been produced in Chile, it is very much in the European style, with strong Romantic elements (even if it was produced closer to 1850 than 1800). Whenever it was done, this unusually animated and imaginative binding bursts with elegant energy.

GESSNER, Salomon. La Mort d'Abel.
Paris: Defer de Maisoneuve, 1793.
Contemporary binding, binder unknown.

This striking, contemporary marbled calf binding features covers with prominent red and green diagonal flaming streaks and frames of multiple elegantly decorative gilt rolls, a flat spine divided into compartments by plain and decorative gilt rules with each compartment ornamented with fleuron cornerpieces and large centerpiece formed by a patera within a scrolled collar, a red morocco label, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, and all edges gilt.

The binding, with its unusually beautiful colored marbling, is of more than passing interest: even though internally this is a most attractive book, it appeared at a troubled time when buyers would have been inclined not to spend money on expensive bindings, so to find this book in a particularly handsome contemporary binding is good fortune, indeed.

TENNYSON, Alfred. The Princess: A Medley.
London: Edward Moxon and Co., 1860.
Later jeweled binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

Sumptuously bound in dark green morocco, densely gilt, intricately inlaid, and adorned with jewels by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, this binding features covers with a diapered central panel enclosed by a wide and ornate frame of inlaid brown and green strapwork on a heavily stippled gilt ground accented with leafy fronds of gold, the inner edge of the frame punctuated at the corners and on the sides by a dozen lotus blossoms of purple and green morocco.

The upper cover possesses a  central medallion framed by green, blue, and brown strapwork with knots at the head and foot adorned with a total of six cabochon sapphires, and the frame itself is set with ten cabochon emeralds. The medallion is filled with swirling gilt vines, tiny red morocco berries, and flowers on a very densely stippled ground, the whole with a dramatically superimposed "A T" monogram of inlaid green morocco at the center. The lower cover has a similar central medallion in which red dots of inlaid morocco replace of the gemstones, and the centerpiece is a gilt quatrefoil with inlaid circles of green morocco. Raised bands, compartments richly gilt with inlaid brown strapwork, gilt leaves, red morocco berries, and much gilt stippling finish the outer covers of this binding extravaganza.

Front doublure.

Inside are chestnut brown morocco doublures within a wide green morocco frame decorated with plain and dotted gilt rules and floral spray cornerpieces of inlaid lavender flowers, red hearts, and gilt rose leaves. The panel of the front doublure has a sunken scalloped oval medallion containing a portrait of Tennyson on ivory under glass encircled by a wide, thickly gilt collar with ten cabochon turquioses.

Rear doublure.

The rear doublure possesses a similar sunken panel featuring a large floral spray of roses and tulips in gilt and inlaid morocco within an inlaid strapwork frame, the whole surrounded by a wide band of heavy gilt. The endleaves are of brown moire-silk. 

Painted, gilt, and gauffered fore edge.

As if that weren't enough, all edges have been gilt, gauffered, and painted in a delicate diapered floral pattern.

My bib is sopping wet.

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Bound To Be Great Week continues with these don't miss features:

Tuesday: The Guild of Women Binders, Bound To Be Great.
Wednesday: More Magnificent Bindings, Bound To Be Great.
Thursday: The $65,000 Binding, Bound To Be Great.
Friday: Drop-Dead Gorgeous Bindings, Bound To Be Great.__________

All images courtesy of Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books, currently offering these books through their just published Catalog 61: Historically Significant and Decorative Bindings 1536-2010, a magnificent production, and an instant and important reference source.

This post impossible without the assistance of Pirages' head cataloger and Booktryst contributor, Cokie G. Anderson.

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Of related interest:

Five Great 20th Century Bindings.

Five Must-See Modern French Bindings.

A Royal (Roger) Payne in the Binding.

Three Must-See Bindings.

Three More Must-See Bindings.

Search our archives under "bindings" to find more fascinating and visually stunning posts on the subject.
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