International studio (33.1907/1908(1908))

Studio-Talk



BOOKBINDING
224

pattern, she shows herself an appreciator of the
best secrets of her craft. This careful valuing
of the leather space is well showni in the binding
of Tennyson’s Poems. Restraint and simplicity
characterise the work of Mrs. Pearson-Gee, whose
bindings here reproduced we were pleased to see
at a recent exhibition at Messrs. Carfax’s, and
it is these qualities which give to her work the

twelve months or so have figured at one or other
of our minor exhibitions. The craft is a fascinating
one, and continues year by year to attract a fresh
supply of students. That which attracts them—
the pleasure of conceiving something and making
it themselves, lies also at the root of the attraction
which the finished work offers to the collector.
The individual handling of the tools imparts to the
work just those particular
qualities which are absent
if the same design is carried
out by a machine. Another
fact to be appreciated is
that the book - designer’s
tools exercise a restraint
which prevents his design
from straying so far into
the realms of ugliness as
is possible in some other
crafts. In the work of the
leading modern book-
binders there is to be noted
a true perception of what
is required, and under their
guidance a school has arisen
with the purest aims before
them. The bookbindings
of Miss K. Adams, two
diverse examples of which
are here reproduced, pro-
claim her to be a designer
of fancy and refinement, a precise and skilful
worker. By choosing a simple motif and by
setting a right value upon the spaces of leather
which fall into the design behind the gold

BOOKBINDING

charm it undoubtedly possesses. She does not
allow her design to compete with the pleasant
qualities inherent in the material upon which she
works; on the contrary the design is made to
emphasise these qualities.
Mr. J. S. Bates’s work,
though scarcely so original,
is none the less highly
skilful, and is at the same
time happy in design. He
has regard for the value
of a design, dividing the
leather into panels relieving
the details of the pattern.
The same remarks apply
largely to the work of Mr.
F. D. Rye. Messrs. San-
gorski and Sutcliffe lay great
stress on the constructive
side of their work, basing
their technique upon that
of early binding in prefer-
by f. d. rye ence to that of the present