ON THE BINDING OF THIS VOLUME Berthelet, the Royal binder, but I believe these are in either kid or deerskin, not vellum. On Charles' vellumbooks, besides the ostrich plume or the Royal coat-of-arms, are found small stamps of flaming hearts, ermine points, arabesques, and small arabesque corner-pieces, one of which embodies a human mask. The design which appears to have found most favour with Prince Charles, as concerns books bound in morocco, is a very decorative arrangement of the triple plume enclosed within a garter, itself sometimes surmounted by a princely coronet. Examples of this design are mostly to be found in the Royal Library at Windsor. After Charles' accession to the throne of England he used at first, on his bindings, only the stamps left by his father, often with the distinguishing letters C.R. flanking the Royal coat-of-arms, in a similar manner to that which he had previously followed with his brother's stamps. The most usual design found on the earlier bindings, which are often extremely rich in appearance, is the Royal coat-of-arms in the centre, with heavy corner-pieces at, or near, each of the corners of the boards, or inner panels ; the ground being decorated with a powdering of small stamps, lions, tridents, roses, thistles, and fleurs-de-lys being the commonest, sometimes used alone and sometimes in combinations. The ground is rarely left plain, the rich corners being still retained, and conversely, the corners are rarely left out, the ground still richly ornamented with a symmetrical powdering of small stamps. The decoration of the ground, or field, of a binding by means of repetition all over it of impressions from small stamps occurs first in English work during the sixteenth century. It consists originally of small clusters of three dots, then small roses, both of these forms having been used for Queen Elizabeth ; the dots are found on calf bindings, inlaid with white leather, which were most likely bound for her by John Day. It is generally said that the semis was invented in France, but I do not think it is at all certain. Although the Jacobean designs held full sway during a con- siderable part of Charles' reign, they had not an undisputed pre- eminence, as modifications presently appeared and became grafted on to them. The new departureconsisted chiefly of the introduction of lighter stamps, curves and borders designed somewhat in the manner of Le Gascon, but not always pointillé. The bindings which possess much of this smaller work have not, to my thinking, anything of the dignity of the more simple English style ; the small stamps are not used with much skill, neither are they always good in themselves ; at the same time it must be admitted that these composite bindings have received a considerable amount of praise. This is, I think, partly due to the curious tendency, which has been always so prevalent among English critics of bookbinding, of endeavouring to search out foreign ideas, and invariably praising 4
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