MODERN BOOKBINDINGS ADDED TO THE

DEPARTMENT OF PRINTED BOOKS, 1974-1983

MIRJAM M. FOOT

T H E British Library's collection of twentieth-century bookbindings has not receivedmuch publicity, overshadowed as it is by the unrivalled collections of bindings from thepast. When Howard M. Nixon wrote about the English and foreign bookbindings addedto the Department of Printed Books between 1963 and 1974^ most emphasis was given—and rightly so—to the acquisition of older material, though the six handsome twentieth-century French bindings bequeathed to the Library by Major Abbey merited and got anillustration each.

The following note on twentieth-century bindings acquired by the Department ofPrinted Books during the last ten years may help to redress the balance.

The earliest is a gold-tooled dark green morocco binding made by Sarah Prideaux in1902, covering John Addington Symonds, Walt Whitman, a study (London, 1893),presented by Mrs Christopher Webb through the Friends of the National Libraries inMay 1976 (C.i43.b.9: fig. i).

Miss Winifred K. Booker, a niece of the binder Walter Thomas Walker, gave twoexamples of her uncle's work. One of them, an elaborately tooled and onlaid brownmorocco binding in the Sangorski tradition, won him the first prize in the examination ofthe City and Guilds of London Institute in 1909. The silver medal with which the Princeof Wales presented him on that occasion was well deserved. The binding covers TheGallery of Modern British Artists (London, n.d.) (C.i29.m.2o).-^

Though it is difficult to judge the lasting value of contemporary art, it cannot be deniedthat contemporary binding design in Britain has developed to a remarkable extent overthe past quarter-century. The craftsmanship of the best British hand bookbinders isimpeccable, and original and even exciting work has emerged over recent years.

Although excellent work is also done abroad, the Library has in the first instanceconcentrated its efforts on acquiring examples from the work of post-War English binders.Several of these were already represented in the collections, though some with early workonly, different in concept and execution from later developments, and the Library stilllacks examples of the work of several binders who have proved their worth. Theacquisition of modern bookbindings is in no way a closed subject.

One of the first bindings commissioned by the British Library covers a copy of XSermons preached by . . .John Donne . . . chosen by Geoffrey Keynes (London, 1923). It was

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Fig. I. J. A. Symonds, Walt Whitman (London, 1893), bound by Sarah Prideaux in 1902. C.i43.b.9

made by William Matthews during the Spring and early Summer of 1976. A linear designon black goatskin displays the brilliant gold tooling for which Matthews was justly famous(C.i44.d.8: fig. 2). In a letter of 8 December 1976 Matthews called it 'perhaps my bestbinding'. He died, aged 79, on Good Friday of the following year.^

At the same time as William Matthews was approached, Sally Lou Smith was asked tobind a book for the Library's collections. She chose Nikolay Gogol's The Overcoat. FromTales of Petersburg, printed in Verona by the Officina Bodoni in 1975, and covered it indark brown goatskin with crumpled onlays in grey and black, tooled in blind to an abstractdesign. The brown goatskin doublures are tooled in gold (C.i29.g.7). This very attractivebinding was finished in 1978, two years after her binding for Robert Graves, At the Gate.Poems (London, 1974), made of dark brown goatskin decorated with crumpled onlays oforange, brown, and grey goatskin and smooth onlays in brown and blue, and tooled ingold. The gold-tooled doublures are of orange goatskin with onlays in dark brown, brown,and grey (C.iO9.q.7: fig. 3).

A third commission with a most felicitous outcome was that of a binding by SydneyCockerell. His work, like that of William Matthews and Sally Lou Smith, had hithertobeen poorly represented in the Library's collections. It was his own wish to bind a musicbook and a recently published edition of Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice (London,1979) received a natural toned vellum binding, tooled in gold and black to a designreminiscent of Venice by night. The book was forwarded by Desmond Shaw and designedand tooled by Joan Tebutt and Sydney Cockerell (C.i83.b.7: fig. 4).

Several donations of post-War bindings received during the sixties and early seventieswere mentioned by Howard Nixon;'^the modern bindings that came with the Henry DavisGift have been discussed elsewhere,^ but this benefactor's last donation deserves mentionhere.

The issue of the Book Collector for the Spring of 1975 contained seventeen essays on thehistory of bookbinding, dedicated to Howard Nixon by his grateful friends and colleaguesand presented to him on his retirement from the British Library. Henry Davis, withcustomary generosity, commissioned Bernard Middleton to bind two copies of this issue,one for presentation to Howard Nixon, the other to be added to the Davis Gift to theBritish Library. The binding is of black goatskin, inlaid in green and onlaid in red, andtooled in blind and gold to a design inspired by the original wrapper, incorporating thenames of the contributors to this special number. The green goatskin doublures and end-leaves are onlaid in red and tooled in gold and black.^

The fellowship of Designer Bookbinders organizes regular exhibitions at which fellowsand members can show their work. During one of these, held at the Waterloo Place Galleryof the Crafts Advisory Committee during the Summer of 1974, the Department acquireda copy of Alain Viohht-GriW^t, Jealousy (Kentfield, California, 1971), bound by DeniseLubett in 1973 in black goatskin, with yellow onlays outlined in blind, showing a design ofsharp peaks, inspired by the pen and ink drawings by Michele Forgeois which illustratethe book (C.iO9.q.5: fig. 5). A second binding by Denise Lubett, on Guillaume deDeguileville, Geoffrey Chaucer's A.B.C. called La priere de Nostre Dame (San Francisco,

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Fig. 2. J. Donne, XSermons (London, 1923), bound by William Matthews in 1976. C.i44.d.8

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Fig. 4. B. Britten, Death in Venice (London, 1979), bound by Sydney Cockerell in 1980. C.i83.b.7

Fig. 5. A. Robbe-Grillet, Jealousy (Kentfield, Cal., 1971), bound by Denise Lubett in 1973.

1967) was made in 1981 of black goatskin and onlaid in red to an arabesque design(C-i29.m,i2: fig. 6). At an exhibition of work by the Designer Bookbinders at Hatchard'sin the Summer of 1978, the Department bought a copy of John Sparrow's Lapidariaseptima (Cambridge, 1975) bound by Jeff Clements in brown goatskin with inlaysof black and grey goatskin and recessed inlays edged in orange and white (C.i29.i.2:

%• 7)-The 1970s saw the emergence of a new generation of outstanding young bookbinders,

not all of whom are yet represented in the Library's collections. Two examples of DavidSellars' work came to the Department. One, a black goatskin binding with crumpledonlays of yellow goatskin and sunk inlays in grey, was made in 1975 and covers JohnMilton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (San Francisco, 1936) (C.i44.k.5: fig. 8).The other is a very recent acquisition, bought during a Designer Bookbinders exhibitionat Bertram Rota's bookshop in June 1983. It is 21 copy of The Four Gospels {Leipzig, 1932),bound in 1981 in an impressive, entirely black binding described by the binder as made of'natural dyed goatskin [with] suspension of leather dust inlays [and] black suede onlays',tooled to a design of squares, showing a cross in the centre of both covers. It has aningenious box which consists of four parts slotting in to each other (C. 183.a.32). On thesame occasion the Library acquired a binding by Angela James, made in 1982 for LeonardClark, An Intimate Landscape (London, 1981). The lower part of the white calf binding isdecorated with strips of plywood and the upper cover has a cut-out compartment in theshape of a window, framed in wood, revealing a delicately embroidered panel let into thefacing end-leaf. The embroidery shows a landscape with a hill, trees, a vegetable garden,and grazing sheep (C.i83.b.8: fig. 9).

The yearly bookbinding competition at which young aspiring binders have a chance toshow their craft, now organized under the auspices of Designer Bookbinders, is a goodhunting-ground for new talent. In 1976 David Kevin Stevens was awarded the first prizefor his binding of St John of the Cross, Cantique d^amour divin entre Jesus Christ et Famedevote (Paris, 1944), in red goatskin, tooled in gold and black to a design of intertwinedbands composed of oval and egg-shaped tools, with gold- and blind-tooled black goatskindoublures (C.i44.e.i: fig. 10).

Two non-British modern bindings deserve a mention: a white and black box calfbinding with orange onlays on the spine, tooled in black and white to an abstract design onArthur Rimbaud, Une Saison en enfer (Brussels, 1873), made in 1948 by Rose Adler(C.i29.m.i3),'' and an exquisite binding by a Belgian binder whose work deserves to bebetter known on this side of the Channel. Micheline de Bellefroid designed and executedin 1983 a black goatskin binding with cut-out compartments in olive green calf edged inpale green, for Henri Michaux, Apparitions (Paris, 1946). The gold lettering on the spinewas done by Anne Thimmesch (C.i83.a.33: fig. 11).

A selection of twentieth-century bindings acquired over the past quarter-century,including the bindings discussed here, will be on exhibition in the British Library's King'sLibrary from 20 January till 30 April 1984.

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Fig. 7. J. Sparrow, Lapidaria septima (Cambridge, 1975), bound by Jeff Clements in 1978. C. i29.i.2

Fig. 8. J. Milton, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (San Francisco, 1936), bound by DavidSellars in 1975. C.i44.k.5

Fig.g.h. Chrky An Intimate Landscape (London^ 1981), bound by Angela James in 1982. Ci83.b.8

Fig. 10. St John of the Cross, Cantique d'amour divin (Paris, 1944), bound by David Stevens in1976.

Fig. II. H. Michaux, Apparitions (Paris, 1946), bound by Micheline de Bellefroid in 1983.

1 H. M. Nixon, 'English Bookbindings added to the 4 H. M. Nixon, arts. cit.Department of Printed Books, 1963 to 1974', 5 M. M. Foot, 'Twentieth Century Bindings in theBritish Library Journal, i. 2 (1975), pp. 181-90. Henry Davis Collection', Designer BookbindersH. M. Nixon,'Foreign Bookbindings added to the Review, ix (Spring 1977), pp. 2-5; M. M. Foot,Department of Printed Books from 1963 to 1974', The Henry Davis Gift, \o\. 2: A Catalogue of NorthBritish Library Journal, iii. i (1977), pp. 44-55. European Bindings (London, 1983), nos. 229-50.

2 Illustrated in the 5oo^ Co//̂ i:for, xxxiii, I (Spring 6 Ibid., no. 250.1984), p. 66. 7 Illustrated in Martin Breslauer, Fine Bindings,

3 See his obituary in The Times (14 April 1977). Catalogue 104, part 2 (1981), no. 272.

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