Byways among English books / by Cyril Davenport.

  • Davenport, Cyril, 1848-1941.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Byways among English books / by Cyril Davenport. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Berthelet’s influence on contemporary binding was very strong, and signs of his styles persisted all through the Tudor period, but when James I came to the throne, it is likely that Tis Scottish binder Gibson, a very fine designer, finally replaced the English binders at Court. The next great English binder, Samuel Mearne, began his original work towards the end of the reign of Charles I, when a considerable number of very decorative bindings were made with mosaics of coloured leathers cut very thin. Besides the coloured leathers there is often some painting in red and silver, a style which Mearne after¬ wards developed with much success. These coloured Fig. 15.—Samuel Mearne’s device, used on books bound for Charles II bindings are all gold tooled, and the ornamentation upon them is strongly typical of Mearne’s later and more indi¬ vidual style. They may have been early work by him. But after the Restoration, when Mearne was made Royal Binder to Charles II, he originated a style which is now known as the “ Cottage ” style, which became the most popular design ever invented by an English binder, and has retained its popularity up to the present day. The normal and simplest ornamentation in gold of a book cover is a line parallel with the edges of the boards and some little distance inwards. Mearne started with this line and broke it up both at the top and at the bottom into a gable form, and the elaboration of this simple