Studio: international art (9.1897)

Continental Bookbindings

of old. They were no mere agreeable artists, but
rather marvellous workmen, with the strongest
feeling of conscientiousness in everything they did.
Rather than put forth any work of inferior kind,
they would have cut off a finger. The bulk of the
modern French binders may be roughly divided
into two classes—artists with a taste for dabbling in
handicraft, and craftsmen with a hankering after
artists' work. It was no wonder, of course, that
the antiquated patterns of Louis XIII., XIV. and
XV. came to pall in due time. It was neces-
sary to create new forms ; but the mistake was
made, when the time came to lead the way, of
breaking right off, not only from the old models
themselves, but also from the admirable technical
methods employed in their production. And the
attempt was made to cover up any deficiencies by
a mass of elaborate ornament, in defiance of the
great maxim that a binding should indicate the
nature of the pages within its covers, and not be
merely a piece of commonplace symbolism, With-

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BOOKBINDING DESIGNED BY COUNTESS SPARRE.

Helsingfors

out any sort of regard to the practical side of the
work. In this connection there can be no doubt
that the influence of certain writers has played an
undesirable part in producing this confusion of
taste. The illustration of their fantastic ideas has
led the artists quite astray, for the good reason
48

that they knew nothing whatever of the craft they
were attempting to practise. One of the few \vho
have been able to hold their own in the new
movement, and have realised with some degree of
certainty what are its demands and what its possi-
bilities, is Marius Michel, who was represented at
the Exhibition by a characteristic collection of
work. The art of binding in France owes much

BOOKBINDING DESIGNED BY COUNTESS SPARRE.

Helsingfors

of its progress to him. He was the first of the new
school to recognise the necessity of utilising the
old styles, and, as became the descendant of a
family of binders, he was sufficiently well versed
in technical knowledge not to lose sight of the
practicability of the design ; and thus it is that
while he has given full effect, in many admirable
books, to every part of the design, he has rarely
indeed indulged in the fantastic vagaries already
alluded to, and has almost always contrived that
the cover of the book and the book itself shall
form one whole, in complete harmony and appro-
priateness.

Of the other French workers in the modern style