Stunning 18th Century Illuminated Hebrew Manuscript Comes To Auction

by Stephen J. Gertz

On Thursday, June 21, 2012, Kestenbaum & Company, auctioneers, is offering a  stellar collection of rare Judaica with many luminaries, not the least of which is a beautiful 18th century illuminated Haggadah, the Passover prayer book, with pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations,  by the scribe Nathaniel ben Aaron Segal. Created in Hamburg in 1757, it is estimated to sell for $30,000-$40,000.

Note Ashkenasy square script.

In Hebrew with instructions in Yiddish, it is composed upon thick parchment and written in Ashkenazi square and waybertaysch (women's Yiddish) scripts with the text following the traditional Ashkenazi rites.

Known as the "Lilien" Hagadah, it is part of the collection of the Polish-Jewish artist and early Zionist Ephraim Moses Lilien (1874-1925), who is considered to be the leader in developing Zionism's artistic vision in the early 20th century. Owned by the family for nearly a century, the book was, for a period of time, loaned to the Bezalel National Museum in Jerusalem and was on prominent display in the Monumenta Judaica exhibition of 1963-64 in Cologne, Germany.

Bookplate of Ephraim Moses Lilien.

Nathaniel, the son of Aaron Segal, was a sofer starn - a scribe of Torah scrolls, phylacteries, and mezzuzahs - actively working 1757-1772 in Altona, Hamberg, and Wandsbeck. He is firmly credited with six illuminated manuscripts (four Haggadahs and two Mohel (circumcision practitioner) books.

Why, three hundred years after Gutenberg, were Hebrew books still being copied in manuscript and illuminated? It was an art form not to be discarded; examples survive from the 10th century Muslim community and scholarship suggests that Hebrew illuminated manuscripts date back to the ancient world. They reached their apex in Renaissance Italy, then began to decline as demand and the number of artisans dwindled.

Yet "a new phase in the development of decorated Hebrew manuscripts emerged in the 18th century in Germany and Central Europe, when wealthy Court Jews commissioned handwritten and painted books as luxury items. Many of these are personal prayer books, which include Haggadot, seder berakhot, seder tikkunei Shabbat, and seder brit milah. Some of these manuscripts were intended as wedding presents for brides and contain contemporary depictions of women. Many of the Haggadot were inspired by the printed edition of the Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695. Other features that reveal the influence of printed books are the inclusion of a decorated title page or the indication that the manuscript was written using otiot Amsterdam, the style of letters utilized for Amsterdam imprints, even though the book was written elsewhere" (Evelyn Cohen, Illuminated Manuscripts, Hebrew. Ecylopaedia Judaica, 2d ed.).

BTW: The star attraction in this auction is a copy of the Ferrara Bible, published in 1553. It is estimated to sell for $30,000-$50,000.

One of the great landmarks in printing, the Ferrara Bible is the first printed translation into Ladino, the  Judaeo-Spanish language, of the entire Tanakh, the Hebrew BIble (Old Testament).

Its publication was the work of Marrano Jews (New Christians) who brought the Spanish language with them after the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492 and had settled in Ferrara in northern Italy, which had a Jewish population as early as the 13th century. These Marranos, who had converted to Christianity strictly to successfully function in Spain, and, post-1492, to stay alive, returned to Judaism after their expulsion.

This translation, based upon earlier medieval Castilian versions, became the canon for the Sephardim (Spanish Jews) of Europe to whom matzoh balls are unknown. As we say in Yiddish,  Oy caramba.

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Images courtesy of Kestenbaum & Co., with our thanks.
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A Stunning Rare Illuminated Book Of Hours, $13,583 Per Hour

By Stephen J. Gertz

Shepherds' Proclamation.

On May 21  2012, Ketterer Kunst Auktions - Hamburg is offering the De Gros-Carondelet Book of Hours. It is estimated to sell for €299,000 ($326,250).

Presentation in the Temple.

Produced on very fine and delicate vellum, this manuscript was initially designed for the Burgundian court secretary Jean III de Gros (1434-1484) c. 1480,  and, some twenty years later, passed into the ownership of the Burgundian chancellor Jean I Carondelet and his family.

John on Patmos.

The book features twenty-two full-page miniatures with surrounding borders comprised of various leaves, flowers, fruits, birds, etc. and with three-line initials in colors, with six small miniatures as well as numerous two- and one-line white-heightened initials in gray blue against a gilt-heightened red brown background, and line fillers of similar design.

The revival of Lazarus.

Of the highest quality, this illuminated Book of Hours  manuscript is of the utmost nobility and provenance, and at the same time a primary source  and historical document from the inner circle of the Burgundian court’s last period.

The evangelist Mark.

Magnificently preserved, the manuscript exhibits unique development from an originally Flemish to a later French style.

Corpus Christi procession.

It was originally illuminated by Simon Marmion, the Dresden prayer book master, and other painters. After it changed ownership and moved to France, which may have been, in part, politically motivated, the miniatures as well as the borders were entirely reworked and modernized by an unknown but gifted French book painter, which led to its fascinating synthesis of Flemish and French stylistic elements.

Madonna and child.

“The apparently complete ‘redecoration’ of the illuminations just a few years after the commissioned manuscript was actually made is so unique that it causes one to speculate whether it was simply motivated by aesthetic reasons or if perhaps treason of the previous owner may have been the actual reason. Whatever the reason, as far as I am concerned, this work is unique considering the aspect of the illuminations.“ (Dr. Bardo Brinkmann, of Basle).

Souls in Purgatory.

Jean de Gros III (1434-1484) began his royal court service an early age and was soon named secretary. He became a ducal audiencer in 1467, and gained further office under Charles the Bold. He had financial administration duties, and was treasurer of the Order of the Golden Fleece. He owned a splendid house in Bruges.

Initial decorations.

Jean Carondelet (1428-1502), Seigneur de Champvans et de Solre, was in the service of the Burgundian dukes, Philip the Good and Chrarles the Bold; the fortunes of the Carondelets were closely tied to the Budundian Netherlands. He was President of the Great Council of Mechelen 1473-1477, and Burgundian chancellor 1480-1496.

The manuscript is in a contemporary Flemish calf binding over blind-tooled wooden boards, each board with eight stamps in blind separated by friezes.

The word for Book of Hours in German is Stundenbuch; the book will leave you stunned in awe.

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[De Gros - Carondelet]. Book of Hours. Flanders c. 1480, Burgundy c. 1485-1500. Illuminated manuscript on vellum with 16 text, 17 calendar lines. 348 ff. 22 illuminated miniatures, 6 small miniatures, initials throughout. Flemish Bastarda in black ink, rubrics (obviously) in red.

Provenance: Not in the relevant literature. In the possession of the family of Georg Hasenclever (1855-1934), father of expressionistic writer Walter Hasenclever, since the late 19th century.

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Magnificent 15th C. Illuminated Hebrew Manuscript Estimated $540K - $800K

By Stephen J. Gertz

Cantor pointing to The Book of Life, opening Yom Kippur.

A mahzor, or Jewish holiday prayerbook, an illuminated manuscript in Hebrew on vellum from Tuscany (likely Florence), c. 1490s, is being offered by Christie's - Paris on May 11, 2012. It is estimated to sell for €400,000 - €600,000 ($540,000 - $800,000).

Ark of the Covenant, with men teaching in the synagogue below.

It is magnificently illuminated in the characteristic style of Giovanni di Giuliano Boccardi, known as Boccardino il vecchio (Boccardino the Old, 1460-1529) and considered one of the last representatives of the golden age of Florentine renaissance illumination. His princely clients included Lorenzo de' Medici "Il Magnifico," and Matthias Corvinus

Leaf with illuminated border and headpiece.

While Boccardino's work dominates the first sixty-eight leaves, subsequent illuminations were completed by followers or members of his workshop after Boccadino's designs.

Frontispiece with border medallions.
Note coat of arms in lower panel, flanked by cherubs.

The Jewish community of Florence flourished in the 15th-century, their position closely linked to the fortunes of the de' Medici. Lorenzo il magnifico was their protector; he encouraged Jewish scholarship and scholars. It is, then, unsurprising that Jewish patrons of this Mahzor solicited an artist who worked for Lorenzo for this luxury manuscript. While Christian Florentines illuminated Hebrew manuscripts, this Mahzor appears to be the only example  illuminated by Boccardino.

Mose holding the tablets of the law.

Raising of the Passover Seder basket.

The coat of arms bears resemblance to the Ambron family but coats of arms used by Jewish families were inventions, not official, and variable, employing traditional Jewish symbols. Positive identification is difficult. The manuscript's 16th century binding bears a central medallion combining elements of the armorial devices of various Italian noble families, including the Tedeschi and Uzielli of Tuscany

Leaf with illuminated initial and vignette.

A couple in bed.

The Sabbath meal.

Containing prayers for the entire Jewish liturgical year, the Mahzor  includes: blessing of the Name of the Lord; a hundred blessings to be recited daily; blessing for the Lord; the recitation of Shema and prayers to be said before retiring to bed; for the Sabbath;  for the blessing for a new moon;  for Hanukkah with extracts from the Book of Esther; prayers to be said before reading the Megillah; for Passover;  before the fast of Tammuz, followed by prayers for the fast of the Ninth of Av and relating to the Book of Lamentations, followed by prayers and Psalms; prayers for Rosh Hashanah; for Yom Kippur; for Sukkoth; Tsam'a Nafshi, the 12th-century poem by Abraham ibn Ezra, the author's name picked out acrostically in the margin; and commentary on the death of Moses in Hebrew and Aramaic.

Leaf with illuminated vignette.

This mahzor was still in Italy early in the 17th century when it was seen by the Christian censors Fra Hippolytus of Ferrara and Camillo Jagel who signed the final leaf, in 1601 and 1611(?). An inserted note records the purchase of the manuscript in Frankfurt before 1908. It was published in London, 1930, in Adler's Jewish Travellers, when it was in the possession of E. Bicart-Sée in Paris and then by descent to the present family owners.

Binding, lower board.

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MAHZOR. Tuscany (Florence?), c.1490s. Small octavo (6.61 x 4.9 inches; 168 x 125 mm). ii, 442 leaves, apparently complete with catchwords on final versos of many gatherings, some signature still visible, foliation every 10 leaves includes front flyleaves and is followed here, 20 lines of Italian semi-cursive script in black ink, with vowel points, rubrics in smaller script mostly in red or blue, Hebrew square script for initial words, prayers for Yom Kippur highlighted in gold, initial word panels throughout in burnished gold on red, green or blue grounds, some embellished with marginal sprays, text illustrations including the Matzah and Maror, FRONTISPIECE WITH FULL-PAGE BORDER INCORPORATING MEDALLIONS WITH PROFILE HEADS, LANDSCAPE VIGNETTES AND THE COAT OF ARMS OF THE ORIGINAL OWNER, two openings with similar single panel borders and a two-sided floral border on a vellum ground, TWO SMALL, TWO HALF-PAGE AND FOUR FULL-PAGE MINIATURES, two of them with full-page borders incorporating coats of arms, edges gilt and gauffered (occasional light losses of pigment or gold, some unobtrusive smudging or offsetting, a few marginal creases, some fading of ink, particularly to final leaf).

Mid 16th-century Italian gold-tooled dark brown goatskin over thin wooden boards with strapwork painted in red and yellow, both covers with central cartouche with coat of arms, elaborately decorated with a unicorn and rabbit, hatched leaf and flower tools, solid dots and foliate rolls, evidence of two fore-edge clasps, four nail holes at edge of cartouche, (rebacked, repaired at board edges, paint rubbed, clasps missing).

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Images courtesy of Christie's, with our thanks.
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Medieval Scribes Gripe About Writing

by Stephen J. Gertz

Given contemporary physical conditions and tools, if you were a medieval monk or nun and knew how to swing quill and sling ink your take on writing was very likely much as Dorothy Parker's: "I enjoy having written." The process has always been somewhat grueling, the pleasure retrospective.

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You didn't complain; the boss was God. You kept your mouth shut. But  has there ever been a writer who could be stifled without, at some point, rebelling, even if only surreptitiously, in the margins of leaves or on the colophon?

The latest issue of Lapham's Quarterly contains a short, delightful piece about the marginalia of medieval scribes, and Booktryst presents a sampler with verbal illuminations when clarification is necessary.

"New parchment, bad ink; I say nothing more."

Windows 8.

"I am very cold."

"While I wrote I froze, and what I could not write by the beams of the sun, I finished by candlelight."

Medieval monasteries were not known for their central heating systems and insulation. You wrote in a room that was, basically, the great outdoors with walls and a roof pretending to keep out drafts and cold.

"The parchment is hairy."

Well, no, the parchment wasn't hirsute. "The parchment is hairy" is a medieval proverb that means, on one of its multiple levels,"wasting time in fruitless labor," i.e. the scribe made a mistake and has to start all over again, or the scribe felt that the text wasn't worth time and effort. Or, good grief, related to nuns having abortions rather than being found out. There's more than meets the quill with this  ripe medieval phrase, as you'll learn here. It is deeply embedded in, and revealing of, medieval ecclesiastical culture.

"The ink is thin."

"Oh, my hand."

"Now I've written the whole thing: for Christ's sake give me a drink."

Until recently, that declaration and plea could have been written by many if not most novelists. In fact, it is likely that if certain writers couldn't have a drink until after they finished their novels, the books would have been written in half the time in an ardent sprint to the finish for ardent spirits.

"St. Patrick of Armagh, deliver me from writing."

One of the biggest hit songs of the 12th century was written by a scribe who knew the score. Had you turned on the radio you'd have likely heard, in Top 40 rotation, Colm Cille's Is Scíth Mo Chrob ón Scríbainn, a plaintive Celtic rap otherwise known as My Hand Is Cramped With Penwork. 

 

My hand is cramped with penwork.
My quill has a tapered point.
Its birdmouth issues a blue-dark
Beetle-sparkle of ink.
Wisdom keeps welling in streams
From my fine drawn, sallow hand:
Riverrun on the vellum
Of ink from green-skinned holly.
My small runny pen keeps going
Through books, through thick and thin
To enrich the scholars’ holdings:
Penwork that cramps my hand.

It apocryphally ends with the refrain:

My hand is cramped with penwork.
My quill has a tapered point.

Now I've written the whole thing.

For Christ's sake roll me a joint.

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Illumination images courtesy of It's About Time, with our thanks.

Image of this lovely new recording of medieval Celtic lyrics, Songs of the Scribes, courtesy of Pádraigín Ní Uallachán, with our thanks. Listen to a sample of My Hand Is Cramped With Penwork, sung by Pádraigín Ní Uallachán, here.

Translation of Is Scíth Mo Chrob ón Scríbainn by Seamus Heaney.

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Suggested reading:

HAMEL, Christopher de. Scribes and Illuminators. London: British Museum Press, 1992.
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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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