International studio (25.1905)

their bindings should be in
harmony, she tooled the covers
with symbolic designs, intro-
ducing a line from Spenser
upon each.
It is characteristic of this
artist that she should thus
complete a task, for her feeling
is against isolated composi-
tions ; anything in the nature
of a "series" affords fuller
scope for that rhythmic quality
which is the soul of large
work, and which Mrs. Traquair
herself feels so strongly and
declares, " never allows you
BOOKBINDING FOR THE PSALMS BY MRS. TRAQUAIR


some fresh manner of expression and
absorbing her by its possibilities. Soon
her strenuous endeavour brought its
reward: she received commissions to
illustrate such works as Mrs. Browning's
" Sonnets from the Portuguese," the
beauties in which exactly suited her
bent of mind, calling forth the powers
of her imagination; the initial charm
of even the finest written matter is
enhanced by such sympathetic pre-
sentment in artistic form.
Mrs. Traquair executed two copies
of these sonnets, hand lettering and
illustrating them on vellum in full
colour and gold, and in order that
BOOKBINDING BY MRS. TRAQUAIR

to forget that you are part of a
whole, one of the orchestra formed
by the building, in which colour,
line, simple spaces and massed
detail are the musical instru-
ments."
It is this appreciation of
"massed detail" that imparts
such character to her smallest
work, the "little perfect thing,"
as she interprets it, becomes a
grand conception, every detail a
symbol, for it is the hidden life
and meaning of things that her
spirit seeks to illuminate; she is
before everything a symbolist,
and art in every form is her
medium of expression.



BOOKBINDING FOR
" SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE

341