Royal English bookbindings / by Cyril Davenport.

  • Cyril James Humphries Davenport
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Royal English bookbindings / by Cyril Davenport. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the crowned dove bearing an olive branch, is found on any other bindings by Mearne. The stamp of the dove with the olive branch is of course symbolical of Charles’s return to the throne of his ancestors. The book may have been bound for special presentation to Charles on his accession to the throne. In the royal library at Windsor are several specimens of Charles II. bindings. Among them are three copies of Charles Ids Eikon Basilike. One of them is bound in dark blue morocco, with large royal coat-of-arms and supporters, crest and crown. Another in olive morocco is delicately stamped with arabesques, and the crowned initials C. R. ; it has two silver clasps, with medallion portraits of Charles I. Another is bound in calf, having in the centre of each board a decorative portrait medallion of Charles I. in silver, within an ornamental border of figures and arabesques, having also engraved silver corner-pieces on the two front corners. In the same library a copy of the Bible, 1660, and Taylor’s Rule of Conscience, 1676, are bound respectively in black and red morocco, and are brilliant specimens of Samuel Mearne’s work. The boards are covered with many irregular small panels, each closely filled with small stamped work. The Bible was lent to the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1891, and is figured both in their Catalogue and in Mr. Holmes’s book of the bookbindings at Windsor. A copy of the works of Charles I., 1662, now at Windsor, is a beautiful example of Samuel Mearne’s inlaid work. It is bound in deep red morocco, with an inner panel marked with white leather. In the centre is the royal coat, with supporters and crest ; and the remainder of the boards, especially the corners, are ornamented with elaborate inlays of green and yellow leather, and richly stamped in gold. The British Museum is also rich in Charles II. bindings. The Common Prayer, printed in London in 1622, measuring I7^xiij inches, was bound for him in black morocco, elaborately inlaid, and stamped in gold (Fig. 18). A broad, yellow, rectangular panel encloses at the present time a stamp of the coat-of-arms of one of the Georges. This, of course, is a subsequent addition, and it is impossible to say for certain whether there was originally any stamp in the centre of the book or not ; but probably there was a crowned initial. The inner sides and corners of this panel are ornamented with mosaics of white, red, and yellow leather, with gilded sprays and small stamps. The outer edges
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