FOREIGN BOOKBINDINGS ADDED TO THEDEPARTMENT OF PRINTED BOOKS FROM

1963 TO 1974

HOWARD M. NIXON

I N volume i, number 2 of The British Library Journal I discussed some of the Englishbindings acquired by the Department of Printed Books since 1962. This article followedothers on acquisitions from 1941 to 1950, from 1952 to 1962, and in 1962, which appearedrespectively in the British Museum Quarterly, xvii, 2 (1952); xxvi, 1-2 (1962); and xxvil,3-4(1964).

Turning now to the foreign bindings, it will be found that they are almost all French,except for one German and two Italian examples. And the Italian bindings were made foran English king. In 1964 Mr. and Mrs.Ehrman gave us, through the Friends of theNational Libraries, the first two volumes of Cardinal Sforza Pallavicino's DelPistoria delConcilio di Trento published in Rome in 1664, and almost certainly bound in that city ingold-tooled red morocco. In the centre of an elaborate panel design are the arms ofKing Charles II composed from a number of small heraldic tools. It was only when thebooks arrived that the happy discovery was made that they were rejoining the third volumeof the set, similarly bound, which had reached Bloomsbury with the Old Royal Libraryover two hundred years earlier.'

The German example was very welcome since it was a particularly elegant specimenof the work of the greatest German binder of this century, Ignaz Wiemeler, who had'notpreviously been represented in the collections.^ Wiemeler had been considerably influencedby English binders such as T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, but it was no doubt purely coinci-dental that he produced here a design of concentric rectangles which had been used inCambridge in the first half of the seventeenth century (fig. i).

The French bookbindings acquired between 1963 and 1974 included several specimensof first-class importance both as exhibition material and as historical documents. Theearliest is the second of the books given in memory of Albert Ehrman, Franciscus Philelphus,Satyrae centum (Paris, 1508), bound about 1510 in brown calf with a panel of St. John theEvangelist on the upper cover and a four-compartmented panel with St. John the Baptist,the Virgin and Child, the three Magi and David on the lower, both blocked in blind.^

The earliest French gold-tooled binding to be added was a Demosthenes, Orationes(Basle, 1532), probably bound in Paris almost as soon as it was printed.** It is in brown calfwith a frame of arabesque linked circles and a large circular tool in the centre surroundedby tongues of flame (fig. 2). The tools used on it have not yet been identified with those onany other published binding.

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Fig.I, Binding by Ignaz Wiemeier, c. 1935. Gilt brown morocco with black onlays. C.io8.w.3.285 X 196 X 19 mm

Fig. 2. Paris binding, c. 1532. Brown calf, gold-tooled. Cio8.tt.2. 347X237x67

Most of the other sixteenth-century French bindings come from Major Abbey'slibrary, although the Aldine Terence of 1521, which was lot 647 in the sale of 21-3 June1965, spent a short time in a private collection in New York before returning to England.^It probably dates from about 1538 to 1540 and is the work of the binder of the famoustwo-volume Estienne Bible now in the Bibliotheque Nationale, which was bound forFrancois P*". This is now generally accepted as the work of the royal binder, EtienneRoffet. The Terence is particularly interesting in that the designs on the two covers arequite different (fig. 4).

From the Abbey sale of 19-21 June 1967 came two bindings, of widely differing quality,for the great collector Jean Grolier. The first covers three works by Lazarus Bayfius, allprinted at Lyon in 1536, and the volume was almost certainly bound in that year, justbefore Groher took to having his name and motto tooled on the covers.*^ At one time itwas thought that this binding, which has the ownership inscription 'lo. Grolierij Lugdunenet amicorum' written on the last page of the text, was the only example of its binder'swork in Groher's hbrary. It has now, however, become clear that it is from the shop ofthe so-called Fleur-de-lis binder, who bound about a dozen books for Grolier at thisperiod. This book's importance is documentary.

The other Grolier binding from the Abbey Collection was the copy of Krantz, Wandalia(1519), formerly in the Hoe, Rahir, and Mensing Collections.^ It is bound in light browncalf, with ribbons painted black, and gold-tooled to an elaborate architectonic designwith shell ornament on either side of a central lozenge. It was bought for its beauty.

Not bound for Grolier, but from the workshop of Grolier's last binder, came a largeFrench Bible of 1554, which was lot 145 in the 1965 Abbey sale. While not in really finecondition it is of particular interest in having elaborately decorated doublures.^

The most exciting purchase of the period was that of the Cornwallis Bible from AudleyEnd, which was sold at Sotheby's on 22 June 1970. This magnificent work of Claudede Picques, the French royal binder, is certainly the finest sixteenth-century binding inthe country. Its first owner was probably Sir Thomas Cornwallis, who is likely to haveacquired it when he was the treasurer of Calais between 1554 and 1557, and the book hadremained in the hands of his descendants ever since. It was refurbished at the BritishMuseum in the late 1940s and is rumoured to have reached the auctioneers with a notestill in it from the present writer asking that if it was ever to be sold it should be offeredto the Museum. After various vicissitudes, including the fortunate facts that it was lot 2 inthe sale and that a Paris fiight was delayed that morning, it was eventually acquired withthe aid of the Friends of the National Libraries and now figures in the permanent displayof bookbindings in the King's Library. It shows Claude de Picques's workshop at theheight of its powers, its beautiful and intricate interlacing ribbon, outlined with silvertooling and enamelled black, vying with the finest bindings in Henri IPs superb collectionat the Bibliotheque Nationale (fig. 3).

The mosaic effect on this binding was produced by the use of paint. Often polychromeeffects on bindings were the result of onlaying very thinly pared pieces of coloured leatheron to the surface of the covers. The most difficult technique has always been the inlaying

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Fig. 3. Binding by Claude de Picques, c. 1555. Brown turkey, with black enamel, tooled in goldand silver. C.io8.eee.i4. 460X293x113 mm

Fig. 4. Binding by Etienne Roffet, c. 1538-40. Olive turkey, gold-tooled. C.108.C.35.173X 106x23

of coloured leather of full thickness into recesses cut in the covering leather. This wasused very effectively by an atelier producing bindings in the 'fanfare' style in Paris at theturn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and our remaining purchase at the firstAbbey sale was a charming little sextodecimo of red morocco, with green and citroninlays, on a Valerius Maximus of 6

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The most distinguished collection of bookbindings formed in the United States inrecent years has been that of Mr. Raphael Esmerian. He used his jeweller's eye to excellenteffect in differentiating between the 'damned dots' on the 'pointille' tools decoratingFrench bindings in the middle of the seventeenth century, and in this way was able toallocate them to their different workshops. In the course of his studies he was able to makea definite attribution of one group of bindings to the renowned, but exceedingly elusiveLe Gascon, and in the second sale of the Esmerian Library in Paris in 1972 a delightfullittle red morocco binding with a fan design by this binder was acquired (fig. 5)."

Fig. 5. Binding by Le Gascon, c. 1630. Red turkey, Fig. 6. Binding by Mace Ruette, c. 1640.gold-tooled. C.109.e.51. i2iX73X42mm Gilt red turkey with black onlays.

C.109x41. I05X 56X 12 mm

Still smaller and even more elegant was the second purchase made at this sale, a redmorocco binding on a 1626 Lucretius, attributed by Mr. Esmerian to the atelier of MaceRuette.'^ This is one of some thirty-five similar bindings - mostly on Elzeviers - whichcome from the library of Henri-Louis Habert de Montmor (1600-79), ^^^ s the first toreach the British Library. Mr. A.R. A.Hobson has noted that the dispersal of this col-lection began very soon after Habert de Montmor's death, but the absence of any of these

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Fig.y. Binding by Pierre Legrain, 1927. Citron morocco with blue onlays,tooled in gold and platinum. C. 108.w.8. 289 X 237 X 50 mm

little books - which he plausibly surmises may have formed a travelling library - fromthe collections of Cracherode or Grenville suggests that they may not have come on theEnglish market before the middle of the nineteenth century.^3 They all bear Habert deMontmor's cypher on a quadrilobe black onlay within clusters of pointille tooling (fig. 6).

The last hundred years was much the weakest section of our collection of French book-bindings, but some good pieces of exhibition standard have now been added. Just as therenaissance in English bookbinding design was initiated in the 1880s by Cobden-Sanderson,a parallel revival of taste - or revulsion from the pastiche so popular in the nineteenthcentury - took place under the influence of Marius-Michel the younger in Paris. Twobindings in his new style have now reached the Library. The first was the gift in 1964 ofthe eminent American biographer and book collector, Dr.Gordon N.Ray, and coversMme Barthet's Causerie sur Part dramatique (1903). It is a handsome quarto in olive

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morocco with an onlaid floral design and was probably bound soon after publication.'*An earlier example of his work, one of a set of the periodical LArt^ bound probably about1885, was bought in 1968.'^ It has the bookplate of Matthew C. D. Borden, whose librarywas sold in New York in 1910.

It was not, however, until Major Abbey's bequest of six modern French bookbindings,which came to us in 1970, that the Department was in a position to illustrate the astonish-ing developments in French bookbinding which have taken place since Pierre Legrainfirst began to design bindings for Jacques Doucet in 1917. The example of Legrain'swork chosen was on a copy of Colette's La Vagabonde (fig. 7), bound in the year it waspublished, 1927, in citron morocco, with a design of circles in gold and platinum and blueonlays.'^ Rose Adler (1890-1959) was the first really outstanding French woman binder.Her binding is on Matisse's J«;c;: (Paris, 1947) (fig. 8), and was bound two years later inwhite and black box calf, with superimposed onlaid circles in grey, beige, green, and blue. 'The leading Paris binder in the forty years after Legrain's death was Paul Bonet (1889-1971) and his 'sunburst' binding of 1957 in black morocco, with gold-tooled onlays inred, orange, beige, maroon, and white, on one of the three or four copies of Andre Suares,Cirque^ with Rouault's illustrations, which were printed in 1933 (fig. 9), is one of his mostremarkable designs.'^ Germaine de Coster and Helene Dumas were respectively thedesigner (of both illustrations and book) and the binder of Buffon's CEuvres of 1951(fig. 10). It was bound in 1961 in black morocco, with onlays of yellow and brown moroccoand white box calf, and has curvilinear gold tooling with a leaping deer.^^

Since Bonet's death Pierre-Lucien Martin has been considered by many the out-standing French binder. Most of his bindings of the fifties and sixties were marked - atleast in colour - by a classical restraint which contrasted with the lush romanticism ofBonet and others. The black and white linear design on Andre Suares, Helene chez Archimede(Paris, 1955), with illustrations by Picasso (fig. 11), is an ingenious and beautiful per-spective design in black box calf with onlays of white and grey, dating from 1962. °Georges Leroux's binding of the same year on Michel Leiris, Vivantes cendres^ innommees(Paris, 1962), with Alberto Giacometti's illustrations,^' does not sound very traditionalor restrained, since its black calf has inlays of plywood and emery paper (fig. 12). Yet theeffect is both harmonious and satisfying.

Besides specimens of bookbinding, some valuable material for their study has beenadded. Lady Ursula Abbey kindly presented her husband's annotated photographs ofbindings in his own and other collections, including most of the gold-tooled bindings inthe Victoria and Albert Museum. The Department also received by bequest the rubbingsand notes collected by J. B. Oldham in the course of writing his Shrewsbury School LibraryBindings (1943), and its successors English Blind-stamped Bindings (1952), and Blind Panelsof English Binders (1958). His researches on these bindings are well known for theirthoroughness, and the rubbings cover the contents of a wide number of university, college,and cathedral libraries.

Attention may also, perhaps, be drawn to two exhibitions held in the King's Library

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Fig. 8. Binding by Rose Adler, 1949. White andblack box calf, with grey, beige, green, and ^ D- j - u n 1 TD . mi

„' ^ / ^ ' ^ 1 Ftg.g. Binding by Paul Bonet, 1957. Blackblue onlays. Cioo.eee.i6. 4^0 x ^SSX ^8 mm . , , , , , , ^ ,

TJ o j j J morocco with gold-tooled onlays 01 red, orange,beige, maroon, and white. C. io8.eee. 17.

444 X 345 X 68 mm

Fig. 10. Binding by G. de Coster and H. Dumas,1961. Gold-tooled black morocco with onlays Fig. 11. Binding by Pierre-Lucien Martin,of yellow, brown, and white. C.io8.eee.i5. 1962. Black box calf with onlays of white and

447x303x28 mm grey. C.io8.eee.i8. 448x338x68 mm

Fig. 12. Binding by Georges Leroux, 1962. Black box calf with inlays ofplywood and emery paper. C.108.W.7. 329 X 258 X 18 mm

during this period: the Grolier exhibition of 1965 in which all the bindings from his col-lection known to be in Great Britain and Eire were exhibited ; ^ and the more selectivedisplay of English bookbindings of the Restoration period held in 1974. ^ Both hadcatalogues which are still in print. The new interest now being taken in the study of book-binding will in time make some of the text of these catalogues out of date, but they willalways retain some value, since they illustrate every binding which was exhibited.

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1 C.77.d.2o.2 CioH.-w.2;0v\d,£legiesamoureuses(Ptins, 1935).

Illustrated by Rodin from drawings made in theearly years of this century, but not published untilafter his death.

3 C.iO9.b.4i; Franciscus Philelphus, Satyraecentum (Paris, 1508). These panels are illustratedin M.J.Husung, Bucheinbdnde aus der Preus-sischen Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (1925), Taf.XXXIII, Abb. 48.

4 C.io8.tt.2.5 C.108.C.35.6 C.io8.ff.i7; Sotheby's 19-21 June 1967, 1655.

British Museum, Bookbindings from the Libraryof Jean Grolier (1965), 12.

7 C.io8.eee.io; Sotheby's 19-21 June 1967, 7962.British Museum, Bookbindings from the Libraryof Jean Grolier {1965), no.

8 C.io8.m.9; Sotheby's 21-3 June 1965, 14$.9 C.io8.eee.i4; Biblia Latina {Paris, R. Estienne,

1540). Friends of the National Libraries, AnnualReport for 1970, pp. 8-9 and frontispiece.

10 C.io8.bb.40; Sotheby's 21-3 June 1965,665.11 C.iO9.e.5i; Palais Galliera, Paris, 8 December

1972, 3. It covers vol. 2 of a i6mo Bible primednot by Estienne, as suggested in the catalogue,but by Gryphius at Lyon in 1550. Le Gascondid not use pointille tools, but ones with solidoutlines.

12 C.i09.e.4i; Palais Galliera, Paris, 8 December1972, 9.

13 French and Italian Collectors and their Bindingsin the Library ofj. R. Abbey (1953), p. 81.

14 C.io8.gg.27.15 C.io8.tt.5.16 C.108.W.8. Most unfortunately, when I made

the selection in accordance with the generousterms of Major Abbey's will, I did not realizethat shortly before his death he had acquired, inone of Legrain's best bindings, a fine copy of oneof the greatest French illustrated books, PaulVerlaine's Parallelement {1900), illustrated byPierre Bonnard. This was lot 2625 in Sotheby'sfifth Abbey sale, 2 June 1970, and it was notpossible for the Museum to acquire it.

17 C.io8.eee.i6. It was no. 122 in the Arts Council's1949 Exhibition of Modern English and FrenchBindings from the collection of Major J. R.Abbey.

18 C.io8.eee. 17. It is illustrated in colour inAlan G. Thomas's Great Books and Book Col-lectors (1975), p. 88.

19 C.io8.eee.i5. No. 96 in the Arts Council's 1965Exhibition of Modern English and French Book-bindings from the collection of Major J. R. Abbey.

20 C.io8.eee.i8. No. 112, pi.9, in the 1965 ArtsCouncil Exhibition. Illustrated in black and whiteby Alan G. Thomas, op. cit., p. 85.

21 C.IO8.W.7. No. 108, pi. II, in the 1965 ArtsCouncil Exhibition.

22 British Museum, Bookbindings from the Libraryof Jean Grolier (by H. M. Nixon) (1965).

23 H. M. Nixon, English Restoration Bookbindings.Samuel Mearne and his contemporaries (1974).

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