BOOKBINDING
The art of binding flourished in England
from a very early period, and in the 12th
century (fn. 1) English binders were in advance
of all foreign workers in this craft. Several
distinct schools of binding of this period may
be traced, by the beautiful examples of their
work which have survived, to certain important towns and religious houses; of chief
interest among these were the schools of
London, Durham, and Winchester. The
decoration of the book covers consisted of very
small stamps, delicately cut and arranged in
formal patterns of infinite variety. The
design frequently consists of a parallelogram,
the lines of which are formed by dies, the
centre being filled with circles and segments
of circles, these being characteristic of English
work. The 13th and 14th centuries do not
mark any distinct progress in English binding,
and very few examples of that period have
survived, but the excessive use of dies appears
to have decreased.
There is an early example of the panel
stamp on a loose binding in the library of
Westminster Abbey. The covers are tooled
at their edges with small tools, and in the
centre is a twice-repeated stamp with the arms
presumably of Edward IV. (fn. 2)
With the invention of printing, binding became much more in request. The binding
of the earliest English printed books differed
in a very marked way from that of the manuscripts which they gradually superseded. The
latter had reached a point of great excellence
in 1476-7, when Caxton produced his first
book printed at Westminster, and their bindings were correspondingly rich, ornamented
with enamels, carved ivory, and other materials
of the most costly kind. But printed books
had at first a very sober covering of plain
leather, calf or deerskin, and sometimes of
parchment. The covers were wooden boards
and the backs were of leather, which was also
drawn wholly or partly over the wooden
covers, the latter being usually fitted with
clasps. A short title is often found written
on the fore-edge, the book being placed on the
shelf with the fore-edge displayed to view.
The bindings of books printed by Caxton, and
perhaps bound in his workshop, have a simple
decoration composed of straight lines variously
arranged, and sometimes inclosing impressions
of small stamps made up into a simple pattern.
Caxton's successors produced a more ambitious
style of decoration by the use of large heraldic
stamps.
After his death in 1491 these stamps were
used by Wynkyn de Worde until the beginning of the 16th century; some of them were
used even later by the stationer Henry Jacobi.
Wynkyn de Worde also used a small stamp of
the Royal Arms. This style was distinctly
English, for though heraldic decoration was
employed by contemporary foreign binders,
the designs were produced in quite a different
way, either in cut or tooled leather. Where
the printer was his own binder his device or
initials are often found on the binding as well
as on the printed page of the book.
The Royal coat-of-arms used by the early
London printers for their bindings was the
same during the reigns of Henry VII and
Henry VIII, except for a difference in the
supporters. The dragon and greyhound borne
by both sovereigns were changed in 1528 by
Henry VIII, who adopted the lion for his
dexter and the dragon for his sinister supporter, leaving out the greyhound. The
Tudor rose which so frequently occurs on
these early bindings was the proudest emblem
of the House of Tudor, and used by all its
sovereigns. It was adopted by Henry VII
on his marriage with Elizabeth of York, and
consisted of a double rose with petals of red
and white, signifying the union of the houses
of York and Lancaster, whose conflicts had
desolated England for so many years. Associated with the Royal coat-of-arms the cross
of St. George and the arms of the City of
London are frequently found upon the same
stamp. The City arms indicates that the
binder was a citizen, and when this was not
the case the citizen shield was replaced by
some other device. The panel of the Royal
arms was used by many English binders who
are only known by their initials; a certain
'G. G.' discarded the more usual supporters
and replaced them by two angels.
Wynkyn de Worde employed latterly binders from the Low Countries resident in
England; among them was J. Gaver, who
was one of the executors to his will, and was
probably connected with the large family of
Gavere, binders in the Low Countries.
Most of the early printers bound their own
books. Richard Pynson, Caxton's pupil, pro
duced some highly decorated designs. The
British Museum possesses a little volume of
Abridgements of the Statutes printed and bound
by him in 1499. (fn. 3) The book is bound in
wooden boards covered with sheepskin, and
shows indications of having been fitted with
two clasps of leather. The cover is decorated
on the obverse with the monogram R.P. on a
shield, supported by two figures and surmounted by a helmet with mantling bearing
a fillet and crest of a bird; in the sky are
nine stars, and below the shield are a flower
and leaf. Surrounding this central design is
a handsome floral border, having in each of the
two upper corners a bird, and between them
a man shooting, probably with a cross-bow.
At the base are a figure of the Madonna, and
another of a female saint, each crowned and
having an aureole, and near the lower righthand corner is the bust of a king crowned and
bearing a sceptre. On the reverse is a similar
plan of decoration, the central panel in this
case having in the centre a double rose, surrounded by a decorative arrangement of vine
leaves, grapes, and tendrils. The border is a
graceful pattern of flowers and leaves, and has
an arabesque at each corner.
Another early printer and binder was Julian
Notary, who worked first at Westminster, and
afterwards in the City between the years 1498
and 1520. Many books bound by Notary
are decorated with two handsome stamps;
one such volume, not from his own press, but
from that of Jean Petit of Paris, is in the
British Museum. It is a copy of Cicero's
Tusculan Disputations, printed in January
1509, which formerly belonged to Henry
VIII. It is bound in wooden boards, covered
with leather, sewn on leather bands, and has
remains of leather clasps with brass fastenings.
The front cover has the arms of Henry VIII,
the three fleurs de lis of France quartered with
the three lions of England, with the dragon
and greyhound as supporters. In the upper
part the shield of St. George and the arms of
the City of London, with the sun, moon, and
stars ; the lower part is decorated with plants
of elementary design. The back cover has a
similar design with the substitution of a large
Tudor rose inclosed by two ribands borne by
angels for the Royal coat-of-arms. In the
base are the initials I.N. of the binder, and his
curious device with the initials repeated in the
lower part of it. On larger books bound by
Julian Notary both these stamps are sometimes
found on the same cover divided by a long
panel bearing the initials L.R. and R.L. tied
together respectively by a cord, and the Tudor
emblems of the pomegranate, rose, portcullis,
and lion. The portcullis was used to signify
the descent of the Tudors from the House of
Beaufort, and is said to represent the castle of
De Beaufort at Anjou.
Before the time of Elizabeth the only leather
used for binding was brown calf and sheep,
the only other materials with very rare exceptions being vellum and velvet. Morocco was
not employed until the reign of Elizabeth or
that of James I.
English bindings of the 16th and 17th
centuries are classified by Miss Prideaux as
follows (fn. 4) :-1. Those in material other than
leather, and often decorated with enamels and
gold and silver pierced and engraved; 2. Stamped
vellum and calf bindings; 3. The VenetianLyonese work; 4. Occasional specimens of
French Grolier work, very frequent ones of
the French semis, and some very good imitations of the delicate Le Gascon, done between
1660 and 1720, the most frequently imitated
of all French work; 5. The cottage ornamented bindings, the one distinctively English
style belonging to the 17th century.
Although the names of some English binders are known, it is impossible to connect many
books with their names. Robert Barker
and James Norton were binders to James I,
and Eliot and Chapman bound 'in the
Harleian style' for Robert Harley, first Earl
of Oxford. (fn. 5) Other binders of the period
were Thomas Hollis and his successor
Thomas Brand. Among the French emigrant
binders were the Comte de Caumont, Comte
de Clermont de Lodeve, Vicomte Gauthier de
Brecy, and Du Lau, the friend and bookseller
of Chateaubriand. (fn. 6)
The work of Roger Payne in the latter
half of the 18th century marks an era in
English bookbinding, which had since the
beginning of that century fallen to a low ebb.
Payne was born at Windsor in 1739, and
after a short service with Pote, the Eton bookseller, came to London in 1766, and entered
the employment of Thomas Osborne, the
bookseller, in Gray's Inn. A few years later
he set up in business for himself as a bookbinder, near Leicester Square. Here he was
joined by his brother Thomas, who attended
to the 'forwarding' part of the business,
whilst Roger devoted himself wholly to the
'finishing.' His great artistic talents placed
him easily at the head of all the binders of
his day, and procured him a number of distinguished patrons, among whom were Earl
Spencer, the Duke of Devonshire, Colonel
Stanley, and the Rev. Clayton Mordaunt
Cracherode. The brothers did not long
continue their partnership, and on the departure of Thomas Payne, Roger took as a
fellow-worker Richard Wier, whose wife was
a clever mender and restorer of old books.
The new partnership had one serious drawback, both Payne and Wier being addicted to
strong drink; this led to frequent quarrels,
and at last to separation. During his association with Wier some of Payne's finest bindings
were executed, and they are all characteristically English. Dibdin (fn. 7) gives a sad picture
of the condition to which Payne was brought
by his intemperance. 'His appearance bespoke either squalid wretchedness or a foolish
and fierce indifference to the received opinions
of mankind. His hair was unkempt, his
visage elongated, his attire wretched, and the
interior of his workshop-where, like the
Turk, he would "bear no brother near his
throne"-harmonized not too justly with the
general character and appearance of its owner.
With the greatest possible display of humility
in speech and in writing, he united quite the
spirit of quixotic independence.' Payne died
in Duke's Court, St. Martin's Lane, on
20 November 1797, and was buried in the
churchyard of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, at
the expense of his friend Thomas Payne, the
bookseller. To this friend, who was not a
relative, he was indebted for his first start in
business on his own account, and for his
support during the last eight years of his
life.
As an artist in binding Payne certainly
shows signs of the influence of Samuel Mearn,
who was the English court binder towards
the end of the 17th century, but his genius
enabled him to originate a style which was
quite his own. The covers of his books
usually bear a simple design, whilst the backs
are elaborately decorated. His bindings also
combine elegance and strength, the sheets of
the books being often sewn with silk, and the
backs lined with leather to give them additional strength. The centre of his covers is
usually left vacant, but among the specimens
of his work in the Cracherode collection at
the British Museum many examples are found
in which the centre of the board is embellished with the beautiful and delicatelyengraved Cracherode coat-of-arms. The
decoration which he generally employed for
his covers consisted of a rectangular line as a
border ornamented with beautiful and very
delicately stamped corners, and angle-pieces of
decorative work. Occasionally he adds ornamental designs which fill or nearly fill the
space between the outer edge of the book and
the inner panel. Payne's decorative devices
are made up chiefly of small stamps, somewhat resembling those of Mearn, interspersed
with minute dots, stars, and circles. The
stamps he most commonly used were crescents,
stars, acorns, running vines, and leaves. To
each of his bindings he attached a bill describing the design and the ornaments used, written
in a most quaint and precise style. Many of
these bills are still preserved in the volumes
whose bindings they describe. Payne took
considerable care in choosing his leather,
usually selecting russia or straight-grained
morocco of a dark blue, bright red, or olive
colour. The olive morocco which he sometimes used being perhaps the most perfect
binding material that is procurable for receiving the impression of a gold stamp. Samuel
Mearn and his son Charles, who were binders
to Charles II, lived in Little Britain. (fn. 8)
Exigencies of space will only admit of a
brief summary of the masters of the art in
modern times. Among the later binders of
the 18th century were a little colony of Germans-Baumgarten, Benedict, Walther, Staggemeier, Kalthoeber-who continued the
traditions of Robert Payne. Charles Herring,
a binder of repute, chiefly worked in Payne's
style. The excellence of the work of these
binders was largely inspired by John Mackinlay, for whom Payne worked before his death.
John Whitaker introduced the Etruscan style
in which designs from the decoration of
Etruscan vases were copied in colours by
means of acids instead of in gold. Charles
Lewis, in conjunction with Staggemeier,
bound most of the Althorp books, and also
those for Beckford at Fonthill. Dibdin, who
was a great admirer of Lewis's work, says,
'He united the taste of Roger Payne with a
freedom of forwarding and squareness of
finish peculiar to himself.' Lewis was assisted
by Clarke, famous for his tree-marbled calf in
binding the library of the Rev. Theodore
Williams. Bedford, who has been regarded
as the best of all English binders in forwarding, did much important work for Mr. Huth.
Of the binders of to-day among the firstclass firms who carry on the traditions of the
past, that of Mr. Joseph W. Zaehnsdorf is
specially well known.