Studio: international art (10.1897)

Recent Bookbindings

sham Japanese designs, the naturalistic flowers, and movement, a legitimate descendant of Morris, and
jin de siccle Beardsleyesques do not come into our Burne-Jones, of the "Arts and Crafts," and the
subject. What we need in modern binding is school of the Pre-Raphaelites. The other, Miss
" style " which is not fettered by precedent; origi- E. M. MacColl, carries out the designs of her
nality without eccentricity, and, above all, a decora- brother, whose initials, " D. S. M.," are a guar-
tion which aims to beautify the appearance of the antee of sane and thoughtful art-criticism rare in the
book, in contradistinction to one that if accidentally English press. Here, for the sake of convenience,
upon a binding, would be not less inappropriate it will be easier to speak of the work as her own, but
upon a dozen other objects, in a dozen other at the same time it is but fair to recognise that the
materials. honours are at least equally divided, and that Mr.

For the moment we may confine our attention D. S. MacColl's very original designs have given
to the later designs of two living bookbinders Miss MacColl the opportunity she has used so well,
whose work has already won deserved reputation. It is not easy to trace the source of the inspiration
Both, it seems to me, have originated distinct of these bindings; to say that they are based on
styles, and yet the later comer owes nothing to the " Classic " art, as those of Mr. Cobden-Sanderson
earlier worker. are remotely derived from Romantic {i.e. German), is

The first, Mr. T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, has to sacrifice the individuality of two distinctly
evolved a style all his own, although it is also original workers, merely because no other labels of
patently enough an offspring of the great aesthetic classification are handy. But in a passing notice of

this sort, the rough attempt
to distinguish the govern-
ing idea may perhaps be
permitted. At best such
generalisation is slip-shod;
for any designer of conse-
quence is always snigetwis,
and creates a new class
which his imitators quickly
fill up, so that it becomes
a recognised " school " of
design. The main line of
difference between Mr.
Cobden - Sanderson and
Miss MacColl undoubtedly
lies in their use of gold.
The former does not avoid
the silhouette, indeed he
cultivates it; the latter
relies almost entirely on
the line. Of course details
might be found which
would show Mr. Cobden-
Sanderson employing the
outline, and Miss MacColl
using the mass. But,
speaking in broad terms,
this may be accepted as a
distinction characteristic of
the two workers. Again,
Mr. Cobden - Sanderson
relies chiefly upon a re-
peated pattern ; Miss Mac-
Coll at times goes near a

BOOKBINDING DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY T. J. COBDEN-SANDERSON SOrt of Conventionalised