ON THE BINDING OF THIS VOLUME earlier date than the printing, it means that it has been transferred from another book, and to a practical binder this would almost invariably be betrayed by some technical peculiarity. With bindings so similar as those of James I. and Charles I. no doubt the printed date of the book is of great and undoubted value as an evidence of original ownership, as at that time there would have been no reason to transfer the bindings, so it may be safely assumed that the binding of Raderus' `Bavaria Pia,' printed at Munich in 1628, which has been chosen as a model for the bindingof this number of the ANGLO- SAXON REVIEW, was bound for Charles I., although it bears none ofhis special stamps. In the centre is the Royal coat-of-arms of England, first and fourth France and England quarterly, second Scotland, and third Ireland, within the Garter, and having a very graceful scroll border which was used before by James I. The escutcheon is surmounted by a Royal crown, showing the arches wrongly ; the English Royal crown has two arches only, but it is shown on Stuart bindings as if it had more. The coat-of -arms is contained within a large rectangular panel with elaborate corner -pieces, floral arabesques, with a butterfly seated on one of the scrolls, the ground being thickly studded with small stamps of roses, thistles, and fleurs-de-lys. The panel is enclosed by a broad ornamental border, handsomely decorated with a wavy line of bold reversed curves, each ending in a conventional flower; the remaining spaces are filled with small stamps, tendrils, leaves, roses, caterpillars, and spangles, this last design having been doubtless suggested by the actual spangles sewn on embroidered books. The embroidered bindings which were largely made in England during the reign of Charles I. are, to some extent, analogous to the velvet bindings of Little Gidding. These curious specimens of needlework had been made on velvet in considerable numbers during the period of our Tudor sovereigns, but with the advent of the Stuarts velvet became rarer, and white satin was very generally used. Many suchbindings are said to have been made by Mary Collet and her ladies at Little Gidding, but there is really no ground for the supposition. Fuller, indeed, does say that the ladies of Little Gidding employed their needles to bind books,' and very likely this remark has been to some extent responsible for the very general idea that embroidered books were made there. In fact, I expect that Fuller only alludes to the sewing of the book on to the bands of the back a very essential part of the binding, which is done with a needle and thread. This sewing was done in a rather unusual way in the case of the ` Harmonies' bound at Little Gidding, and it may possibly have been considered at the time to be worthy of especial 8
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