Sangorski & Sutcliffe Celebrate Elizabethan Poets

by Stephen J. Gertz

Around  1920, Sangorski & Sutcliffe, the famed London bindery established in 1901 by Francis Sangorski (1875-1912) and George Sutcliffe (1875-1943), designed and bound a first edition copy of Charles Lamb's Specimens of English Dramatic Poets Who Lived About the Time of Shakespeare, published in 1808.

It's an extravagant theme binding in full teal crushed morocco with double fillet, gilt-rolled dog's tooth and dotted borders surrounding an inner band of onlaid crimson morocco with quote by vicar and poet Robert Herrick (1591-1674) in gilt with gilt tools, and a gilt-tooled frame with gilt cornerpieces enclosing a central medallion of massed gilt tools encircling an onlaid crimson morocco disc featuring stylized gilt initials, "C.L." (Charles Lamb) to the front cover. The spine is in black morocco.

The rear cover reiterates the design but with a different Herrick quote and a wreath/torch/bow & arrow motif in gilt to the central crimson disc, rather than Lamb's initials.

Deep purple morocco doublures with quote in gilt by Herrick (to upper) and lyre and laurel gilt-tooled cornerpieces highlight the inner covers, the whole framed by multiple gilt-rolled borders. Mauve silk free-endpapers with gilt-rolled border are an attractive detail. Gilt rolled and ornamented compartments, gilt ruled raised bands, and top edge gilt finish it.

The quotes by English poet, Rev. Robert Herrick, that adorn the covers and upper doublure  are pulled from his poem, Upon Master Fletcher's Incomparable Plays (1647). To upper cover band: Here's words with lines, and lines with scenes consent / To raise an Act to full astonishment. To lower cover band: Here melting numbers, words of power to move / Young men to swoon and maids to die for love. To upper doublure: To Master Fletcher / Apollo sings, his harp resounds; give room / For now behold the golden Pomp is come / Thy pomp of plays.

Elizabethan poets whose work is represented by Lamb include Thomas Sackville; Thomas Kyd; Christopher Marlowe; Thomas Decker; Ben Jonson; William Rowley; John Fletcher; Francis Beaumont; etc.

Charles Lamb was born in London in 1775. He studied at Christ's Hospital where he met and formed a lifelong friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. When he was twenty years old he endured a bout of insanity and was confined to an asylum. The next year, 1796, his sister, Mary Ann, murdered their mother and was declared a "lunatic." She, too, was confined to an asylum but was eventually discharged into the care of her brother. Charles became friends with a group of young writers who supported political reform, including Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Hazlitt, Henry Brougham, Lord Byron, Thomas Barnes and Leigh Hunt.

In 1796 Lamb contributed four sonnets to Coleridge's Poems on Various Subjects (1796). This was followed by Blank Verse (1798) and Pride's Cure (1802). He worked for the East India Company in London but moonlighted as a contributor to several journals and newspapers including London Magazine, The Morning Chronicle, Morning Post and the The Quarterly Review. He is best known for his pseudonymous essays for London Magazine, collected and published as Essays of Elia (1823), and for Tales From Shakespeare (1807), a wildly successful collaboration with his sister. Specimens of English Dramatic Poets Who Lived About the Time of Shakespeare went a long way to re-introducing and popularizing Shakespeare's contemporaries. He died in 1834. 

Stamp-signed to lower doublure.
S&S were proud of this binding;
it is rare to find "Designed and bound"
in their signature. "Bound by" is the usual.

Robert Herrick was a 17th century poet of the tempus fugit-carpe diem school who wrote at least one poem that has earned enduring fame in English literature, with an immortal first line known to everyone even if they don't know the poem or poet.

TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME

by Robert Herrick

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
    Old time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
    To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
    The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
    And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
    When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
    Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
    And while ye may go marry:
For having lost but once your prime
    You may for ever tarry.

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[SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE, binders]. LAMB, Charles. Specimens of English Dramatic Poets Who Lived About the Time of Shakespeare. With Notes. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1808.

First edition. Octavo (7 1/8 x 4 1/4 in; 181 x 108 mm). xii, 484 pp.

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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.
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Rare Edition of Lawrence Of Arabia $112,000 - $144,000 At Auction

by Stephen J. Gertz

A scarce "incomplete" Presentation copy of the Subscriber's ("Cranwell") edition of T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, one of only thirty-two of a total edition of 211 copies and inscribed at the time of publication to writer E.M. Forster, is being offered by Sotheby's in their English Literature, History, Children's Books & Illustrations sale on December 12, 2012.

It is estimated to sell for  $112,000 - 144,000 (£70,000 - £90,000). That's $16,000 - $20,571 per pillar.

The book, in which Lawrence wrote of the Arab revolt, 1916-1918, against the Ottoman Empire during World War I and his role in organizing and leading it, set in stone the  legendary adventures of Lawrence of Arabia that emerged from the war's news coverage and stoked the mythos that had grown around one of the most fascinating, complex, and enigmatic characters of his or any other time.

"In 1913 Lawrence wrote a book entitled Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It was designed to cover seven Middle Eastern cities,,,The manuscript was burned in 1914....Lawrence began writing his version of the desert war in 1919...A major portion, if not all, of this first edition was lost at Reading Station in late 1919. A second version was written in London 1919-1920 in a period of three months. Lawrence burned this in 1922...The third manuscript was written in London, Jeddah and Amman, 1921, and in London 1922. This third manuscript, some 330,000 words long, was donated to the Bodleian Library" (O'Brien).

Lawrence had a eight copies printed of that third version in 1922, the first English ("Oxford") edition. He reworked the text 1923-1926, during which time he loaned copies of the 1922 version to various people for critical comment,  E.M. Forster amongst them.

"E.M. Forster was one of the most influential readers of Seven Pillars of Wisdom during the time that Lawrence was cutting down the 1922 ‘Oxford’ text to the abridged version that he issued to subscribers in 1926. Forster offered far more than general praise and admiration. He provided expert criticism of specific writing faults. The two became friends and remained in contact until Lawrence’s death in 1935" (Jeremy Wilson for Castle Hill Press, E.M. Forster and T.E. Lawrence, upon the publication of the Lawrence-Forster letters).

Despite the enormous amount of time, effort, craft and artistry that Lawrence invested in writing this classic his inscription to Forster modestly reads: "Not good enough, but as good, apparently, as I can do."

This, the elaborate "Cranwell" or privately printed Subscriber's (second English) edition - a text of 280,000 words - was published in 1926. Of the total of 211 copies, 170 were complete and 32 were incomplete with three plates lacking, a version "presented to the men who had served with him in Arabia and who were not able to pay the high price asked for the complete issue" (German Reed). the complete issue priced at £31 10s, a princely sum in 1926. The final nine copies were "spoils," i.e. plates only. Each copy was bound differently with various binders employed: for Bumpus (by Riviere); Best; Sangorski and Sutcliffe (as here); Harrison; Charles McLeish; Roger de Coverly & Sons; and Henry T. Wood.

Presentation copy inscribed by the author to E.M. Forster,
“E.M.F.  from T.E.S. ['T.E. Shaw' Lawrence's post-War pseudonym]:
Not good enough, but as good, apparently, as I can do. | I.XII.26"
on preliminary blank together with later inscription from E.M. Forster
to Bob Buckingham, “R.J. Buckingham  from  E.M. Forster 20-1-68”.

No incomplete copies (aside from the nine plates-only "spoil" copies the rarest of the "Cranwell" edition) have come to auction within the last thirty-six years. One of the 170 complete copies sold earlier this year at Bonham's for $65,000 (incl. premium). Only a small handful of copies of the first ("Oxford") English edition of 1922 are in private hands. Should one miraculously find its way to market it will surely fetch upwards of $500,000.

In 1927, Lawrence published Revolt in the Desert, an abridgment of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, in a limited and trade edition that brought his story to a wider audience.

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[LAWRENCE, T.E.] Seven Pillars of Wisdom. A Triumph. [Privately Printed, 1926]. Quarto (251 by 188mm.). The subscribers' or "Cranwell" edition, one of 32 “incomplete” copies (from an edition of 211 copies) (annotated “Incomplete copy | I.XII.26 TES” on page XIX), presentation copy inscribed by the author to E.M. Forster (“E.M.F. | from | T.E.S. | Not good enough, but as good, apparently, as I can do. | I.XII.26.”) on preliminary blank together with later inscription from E.M. Forster to Bob Buckingham (“R.J. Buckingham | from | E.M. Forster | 20-1-68”) on preliminary blank, printed in red and black, frontispiece portrait of King Feysal after Augustus John and 62 (of 65) plates (mostly in colour) and other text illustrations after Roberts, Kennington, Nash, Nicholson and others, 4 folding coloured maps, decorative initials by Edward Wadsworth.

Original full tan morocco signed by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, tooled in gilt on covers, spine gilt in compartments, endpapers by Kennington, collector’s tan morocco backed folding box with thirty typed leaves and one handwritten leaf by Forster, occasional light spotting, one of the most complete of the “incomplete copies” but lacking plates ‘Waterfalls’ and ‘Mountains’ (within the plates following the text) and ‘Prophet’s Tomb’ (not listed, but noted by O’Brien).

O'Brien A040.

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Images courtesy of Sotheby's, with our thanks.
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Three Shamelessly Exhibitionist Bindings And A Voyeur

By Stephen J. Gertz

Exhibition binding by Zaehnsdorf, c. 1900.

Three gorgeous bindings recently laid themselves upon my  desk. Each an exhibitionist - and justifiably so - they shamelessly displayed themselves and invited me to indulge the voyeur within; I'm a sucker for hubba-hubba bindings with fine skin elegantly and elaborately tattooed in gilt, etc. I swear they winked at me as if to say, Get a load this cheesecake, Big Boy.

I love it when the high-born - and these honies come from highly distinguished noble families - deign to allow the hoi-polloi to drool over them. In my presence they're slumming, classy dames throwing a wish-bone to a mutt.

Here, a daughter of Zaehnsdorf splays herself to reveal both sides of her character, soft shoulders and dangerous curves, in an exhibition binding c. 1900.

Never has a first edition of Tennyson's The Princess (1847) looked so regal. In full crushed plum morocco with a single gilt fillet enclosing an elaborately gilt curvilinear frame with floral and foliate tooling against a gilt pointillé background on both covers with the spine reiterating the cover design, this princess is royalty indeed.

And check out what's going on under her covers:

 

An upper doublure of inlaid white morocco daisies with green morocco stems, gilt outlined within double fillet borders against black morocco...

...with the lower doublure featuring inlaid morocco blue bells green morocco stemmed, with gilt outlines within a double fillet border. The free endpapers are deep wine moire silk with the Zaehnsdorf exhibition stamp in gilt to rear. The top edge is gilt, and there are gilt rolls to the binding's edges. 

Is it hot in here or is it just me?

Bound by Ramage, c. 1904.

No, it's not a mirage, it's a later, small octavo edition of Tennyson's In Memoriam (1849) bound by Ramage, as if the poem wasn't memorable enough. The poem was one of Queen Victoria's favorites, a source of solace after the death of Prince Albert in 1861; she reportedly declared that "Next to the Bible, In Memoriam is my comfort."

This is a binding that one usually has to enter a dark, private booth and drop change into a slot to view the goods provocatively posed behind glass for two minutes before the lights go out and you have to keep feeding the coin box because you can't get enough of it. To have held her in my hands, even if only temporarily until betrothed to another, well, I just about lost it.

It's a pip in contemporary full crimson crushed morocco with gilt-rolled borders enclosing a broad frame of antelope morocco with gilt-ornamented black morocco plaitwork devices against a background tiny gilt tools, within which is a gilt-bordered crimson field with gilt foliate corner pieces.  The spine compartments reiterate the gilt frame's design.

Broad turn-ins with gilt rosettes, dots, and fleurons frame cream moire silk doublures, and the free endpapers are also of cream moire silk. There's nothing like silk undergarments to fire the imagination. Indeed, I dwelt upon them for so long while on the job that I risked more than my imagination being fired.

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 Pierre Marcellin Lortic (1822-1892), a leading Parisian binder in the late 19th century 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 designs is broad, Ramage bindings are celebrated for their remarkably delicate, careful, and elaborate gilt work" (Pirages). And they are fascinating dinner companions, great dates and greater dessert.

Binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, c, 1937.

After a dazzlin', eye-pleasin'  evenin' it's time to wind down and settle in with a  demure damsel soft on the lamps but no less hard to resist. Leave it to Sangorski & Sutcliffe to bind, with appropriately quiet, understated elegance, this first edition of Patience Strong's Quiet Corner (1937).

It's gowned in contemporary full acid-free salmon calf with a black calf inlaid border with gilt rolled leaves and medial and corner gilt rosettes enclosing a gilt-bordered panel with small gilt birds, stemmed roses, hearts, dots, and trefoils to both sides. Raised bands possess gilt dotted rules. All edges  are gilt. The spine compartments have gilt ornamented frames with a central rosette. There are green morocco spine labels with gilt lettering.

Tool details.

Winifred Emma May (1907-1990) was an English poet best known for her work under the pseudonym Patience Strong. In 1935 she asked the features editor of London's Daily Mirror to publish her poetry. He agreed and her daily poems, in "The Quiet Corner," continued throughout World War II.

• • •

"A very distinctive act...is that of exhibition...The silly manner of this...activity...points to intellectual and moral weakness; or, at least, to temporary inhibition of the intellectual and moral functions, with excitation...dependent upon a decided disturbance of consciousness...

"Concerning [voyeurism]...it will suffice to refer to Coffignon's book, La Corruption à Paris [le demi-monde, les souteneurs, la police des moeurs, brasseries de femmes, filles galantes, Saint-Lazare, le chantage, etc., etc., Paris: 1888]. The revelations...which this book makes are horrible" (Krafft-Ebing).

I throw myself on the mercy of the court. Three showy hussies held me in thrall, she-devils all.

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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.
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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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Drop-Dead Gorgeous Bindings, Bound To Be Great

by Stephen J. Gertz

A binding that declares, Good Grieve!; an American binding that finally shows up amidst all the Anglos; a binding romance at Oxford; a neoclassical binding of an acclaimed edition of the Bible; a Riviere runs through it; and American television's most popular variety show host of all time, purposely confused with an accomplished binder for a cheap laugh, close Booktryst's Bound to Great Week.

The Lives of Illustrious and Eminent Persons of Great Britain.
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1820.
Later binding by Andrew Grieve.

The covers to this attractive and animated, gilt and inlaid brown morocco binding are bordered by multiple plain and decorative gilt rules enclosing an unusual gilt frame of baroque-style flowers, leaves, volutes, swirls and quatrefoils, cornerpieces of inlaid red morocco quatrefoils outlined in gilt, a central panel dominated by a red morocco oval medallion adorned with a gilt laurel wreath, the oval with four red morocco petals from which spring gilt fronds and quatrefoils, these terminating at the top and bottom of the panel with ochre morocco-outlined mandorlas containing a gilt floral sprig, the background of the panel exuberantly decorated with many small gilt flowers, inlaid green morocco dots, ochre morocco half moons, and assorted small tools.

Raised bands, elegantly gilt spine compartments with central red morocco oval framed in gilt and with olive branch cornerpieces, turn-ins with gilt frames, marbled endpapers, and all edges gilt complete the binding.

This binding is the work of Andrew Grieve of Edinburgh, the teacher of Charles McLeish, who, for sixteen years, worked as a finisher for at the Doves Bindery under the supervision of Cobden-Sanderson.

SHERARD, Robert Harborough. Oscar Wilde: The Story of an Unhappy Friendship.
London: Privately printed at the Hermes Press, 1902.
Contemporary binding by Henry Stikeman

Prominent New York binder Henry Stikeman wrought this handsome and elegantly gilt Art Nouveau binding in olive green morocco. Its covers possess multiple plain and decorative gilt rules enclosing a large quatrefoil with very prominent floral cornerpieces and floral tool accents, the central panel on the upper cover containing a coronet imposed upon crossed writing tools. Raised bands, attractively gilt compartments with a large central lily framed by drawer handle tools, intricate gilt floral turn-ins, marbled endpapers, and top edge gilt finish the job.

Beginning toward the end of the nineteenth century into the beginning of the twentieth, Henry Stikeman’s career laid at the center of art bookbinding in America. A Stikeman binding from the 1880s through 1918-1919 represents the firm's best work.

Like a number of Stikeman bindings, this one reflects the contents of the book: the tooling employs the rounded geometrical shapes familiar from the Art Nouveau, and makes prominent use of lilies, Wilde's signature emblem and favorite flower.

BACON, Francis. Novum Organum…
Oxonii: E Typographeo Clarendoniano, 1813.
Contemporary binding by John Rodwell of Oxford.

This mainstream Romantic-period binding, elaborately decorated in gilt and blind by John Rodwell of Oxford on deep purple straight-grain morocco, features covers with a gilt-ruled border and intricate blind-tooled vegetal frame, a central panel with two very complex elongated ornaments in blind and gilt with palmettos, curls, and many small tools, these attached at the head and tail by graceful gilt tendrils with scroll and foliate accents. Four pairs of raised bands with blind tooling between each, densely gilt spine compartments, broad floral decorated turn-ins, blue moire silk endpapers, and all edges gilt complete the binding.

This volume, published in Oxford by Oxford's Clarendon Press and bound by Oxford's John Rodwell, screams...Oxford! John Rodwell did not produce a great many bindings (ABPC records fewer than half a dozen, none later than 1820), but his firm obviously produced fine, distinctive work.

(Bible in English). The Macklin Bible.
London: T. Bensley for T. Macklin
[final volume Bensley for Cadell & Davies], 1800.
Contemporary binding by Georg Friedrich Krauss.

Georg Friedrich Krauss is responsible for this magnificent contemporary neo-classical-style binding of the seven-volume Macklin Bible. Bound in sumptuously gilt and blue-inlaid red stright-grain morocco, it was executed for Duke Albrecht of Saxe-Teschen (with repeated "A S T" monogram).

The covers feature elaborate frames incorporating eleven plain and decorative gilt rules, four inlaid borders of blue morocco, and elegant swirling foliate ornamentation around the central scalloped panel.  Six pairs of raised bands, each flanking a recessed gilt and blue metope and pentaglyph rule, very handsome spine compartments with blue fan-shaped cornerpieces and central gilt-decorated blue medallions within sunburst gilt collars, turn-ins with Greek key pattern in gilt, striking endleaves of turquoise and green watered silk (the Apocrypha endleaves slightly different), finish the binding.

The most prodigious form of scripture in English ever published, the Macklin Bible was often put into ornate bindings, especially by London binders like Staggemeier and his contemporaries. In Vienna, Georg Friedrich Krauss (1806-1876) was the most prominent German bookbinder of his day, and the Duke of Saxe-Teschen was perhaps his most important client. Works from the Krauss bindery have passed through some of the most distinguished collections over the years.

SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles. Adieux à Marie Stuart. (1916).
Illuminated manuscript, calligraphy by Alberto Sangorski.
Binding by Riviere & Sons.

A stunner in elaborately gilt and inlaid dark blue morocco by Riviere & Sons, this manuscript was designed, written out, and illuminated by Alberto Sangorski.

The covers bear a central red morocco escutcheon featuring a rampant lion on a field of densely stippled gilt with the royal crown above it in red morocco and gilt. The crown and shield are both inside a blue mandorla decorated with twining vines, the mandorla, in turn, enclosed by a large frame with lobed cornerpieces, this frame heavily stippled with gilt and inlaid within an exuberantly decorated gilt border outlined by a thin strip of inlaid black morocco and filled with gracefully swirling vines and curls, with each of the four sides of the frame with an ochre morocco-outlined, gilt-latticed compartment with one or two inlaid thistles in green, purple, and gilt.

Raised bands, spine gilt in similarly stippled compartments containing an inlaid acanthus leaf, turn-ins with inlaid black morocco strips enclosing a repeating pattern of gilt leaves, berries, and azured acanthus leaves, ivory moire silk endleaves, and all edges gilt complete this lily already golden.

Designed and illuminated by Sangorski with thirteen three- to four-line initials in red or blue, five red initials of similar size with penwork, two four-line initials in green, purple, and burnished gold, and six large illuminated initials elaborately decorated with flowers and acanthus leaves in shades of purple, mauve, and indigo, all on grounds of burnished gold, three with extensions of flowering stems, title page with lovely frame in purple, blue, and burnished gold emanating from the "A" in the first word of the title, the burnished gold letter containing a large Scottish thistle, first page of text with swirling red hairline borders at head and tail, with blue flowers, thistles, and numerous leaves and bezants of burnished gold, the first word, "Queen," having a large gray initial with white tracery and large brooch ornament at the center, the other letters in burnished gold, all on an elaborately checkered background, the page opposite with a large miniature of Mary Stuart gazing mournfully at France from the stern of a ship boumd for Scotland based on a painting by W. P. Firth and signed with Sangorski's cipher (dated 1916).

Calligrapher and illuminator Alberto Sangorski (1862-1932) was the older brother of Francis Sangorski, co-founder of the renowned Sangorski & Sutcliffe bindery. Alberto, who had started his professional life as secretary to a goldsmith's firm, became attracted to the book arts at age forty-three and began  illuminating manuscripts that were then bound by his brother's firm. Sometime around 1910 Alberto and Francis had a falling out, and the artist went to work for the rival Riviere bindery. Riviere's workmanship here is, as usual, first rate, as are the materials used, and the book is a shimmering example of 20th century handcrafted book art. Sangorski's one-of-a-kind manuscripts are highly prized in collections and in the marketplace.

BEDIER, Joseph. The Romance of Tristan and Iseult.
London: George Allen, 1903.
Contemporary binding by Sir Edward Sullivan.

This exuberantly gilt and inlaid green morocco binding by the Irish binder, Sir Edward Sullivan, is highlighted by more than fifty large floral inlays.

 

The front cover features a wide, scallop-edged gilt frame filled with leafy gilt stems terminating in inlaid orange tulips in the middle of each side, diamond cornerpieces in maroon morocco accented with small morocco daisies and gilt tools. The upper third of the central panel has a prominent and densely gilt oval wreath with inlaid pink roses and leafy stems, all against a stippled background, and a spray of inlaid pink and gilt lilies in the corners above the wreath. The lower two-thirds of the panel feature a particularly striking design incorporating nine long-stemmed gilt lilies with inlaid pink blossoms emanating from a base filled with flowering gilt vines and heart tools against a stippled background.

The lower cover possesses a similar though simpler design. The spine reiterates the design elements. Gilt and inlaid turn-ins repeating the covers' design, and all edges gilt put the star atop the tree.

Sir Edward Sullivan (d. 1928) "was a noted Irish barrister who was interested in both the craft and history of binding. He practiced tooling in gold, signing his work E.S. Aurifex, 'aurifex' indicating that he was responsible for the gold-tooling. According to Sullivan, binding as a craft had become sterile and he, like Cobden-Sanderson, wanted to promote originality of design, declaring 'I see no reason why Ireland should not take the lead in changing all of this'" (J.P.M. Marks, The British Library Guide to Bookbinding, p. 28). 

Binder Ed Sullivan and his apprentice,
Topo Gigio, share a candid moment.
Sullivan was known as the "seriously over-dressed binder."

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Bound To Be Great Week continues:

Monday: Magnificent Bindings, Bound To Be Great.
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.
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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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