International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

Ornamental Bookbinding in Ireland

does not exhibit a single example of
binding from Ireland.
And yet for all this, Ireland in the
eighteenth Century produced work as re-
markable, and artistically as excellent, as
anything that came from the hands of
the bookbinders of England or Scotland
during the same period. Much of this
work is now in Great Britain, but it is not
usually recognised as coming from the
country which is entitled to the credit
of its production.
Anyone acquainted with the artistic
history of Ireland during the eighteenth
Century knows that a high Standard of
excellence in many branches of art and
craftsmanship was reached in that country
at the time. Dublin was then to Ireland
what London is to-day to the United
Kingdom. Communication between the
Irish Capital and England was tedious,
not to say hazardous; and the great bulk
of the Irish nobility and gentry were
resident in their native land. The man-
sions and dwelling-houses then built in
and around Dublin were to a large extent

has produced binding of a decorative kind
where some local writer has not been found
to chronicle and illustrate the leading
characteristics of such work as may have
been accomplished by his countrymen.
Ireland alone, for some inscrutable reason,
sacro caret vate—has no historian of her
bookbinding ; and, because of such neglect,
is but too generally assumed to have
produced nothing in this direction that can
be called artistic—nothing that can be of
interest, comparatively or otherwise, to
those who have made a study of the subject
in more favoured lands.
Scotch bindings, early and late, are well
known to bibliophiles, and rauch has been
written about them ; and though they bear
a certain superficial resemblance to Con-
temporary English work, they are neverthe-
less easily distinguishable as coming from
where they do. Irish decorative tooling,
however, is—at least in England—but too
often described as being English work;
although the small collection of Irish bind-
ings in the South Kensington Museum
forms a notable exception to the ignorance
generally displayed. The British Museum

IRISH BOOKBINDING

ABOUT A.D. 1754
53

IRISH BOOKBINDING

ABOUT A.D. 1744