International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

Ornamental Bookbinding in Ireland

so marked with originality of style as to
make it a matter of some difficulty to say
what country or school inspired the singulär
individuality of their artistic efforts—for, as
a matter of fact, every country that has made
a reputation for style is in a measure
indebted to some other country for a lead
in that direction. It is more than likely
that the actual hands by whom the best
binding in Ireland was done were at first
imported, but direct evidence is lacking on
the subject. French Huguenots were
coming to Dublin in large numbers at the
time; and, as already mentioned, Italian
artisans were extensively employed in de-
corating the mansions of the Irish Capital;
but even if the native craftsmen were
materially assisted by some amongst these
immigrants, it is still a matter of consider-
able difficulty to account for the continued
tradition of a highly artistic type, under the
instigation and guidance of which book-
bindings of a remarkable originality and
beauty were produced in an unbroken series
irish bookbinding about a.d. 1786 f°r a period of a hundred years.
Amongst the chief patrons of binding of a
governed by artistic taste and a practical knowledge highly decorative kind during the time of which
of technique. It may even be said that in his own I am treating, were the House of Lords and the
particular line the Irish bookbinder went
somewhat ahead of what was done in
other fields of art; for successful as were
the advances made in general artistic
development, the artists who contributed
to that success can hardly be said to
have stamped their period with such
strongly marked characteristics as to en-
title one to speak of an Irish eighteenth-
century school of either painting or archi-
tecture. Their work, in other words, is
not generally distinguishable from that
produced by British artists of the same
time. On the other hand, the Irish
bookbinder, possessing, in common with
all true artists, the power to impress upon
his creations an mdividuality of treatment
as well as of design, succeeded in stamping
his work with that cachet of originality
which it is impossible to mistake, and
which differentiates his work, and that of
his school, from anything produced by
artistic temperaments of another cast in
other places. And for this reason it is that
the productions of the eighteenth- Century
binders of Ireland, when at their best, are irish bookbinding about a. d. 1791
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