DOI Artikel:
Sullivan, Edward: Design in gold-tooled bookbinding
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20710#0055
Design in Gold-Tooled Bookbinding
than in England, remarked, " Partout on relie des of contrast be attempted in the general arrange-
livres, mais la Reliure d'art ne se fait actuellemeat ment of the design.
qu'en France."* Each of these reproductions is also meant to
To other eyes than a Frenchman's it would look illustrate a principle which Mr. Cobden-Sanderson
as if the art in France had never completely re- and other high authorities on the subject have
covered from the ruthless attack made upon it by constantly sought to inculcate—namely, that artistic
the Revolutionists at the end of the eighteenth results in the way of design are more readily to be
century, who not only discouraged by forcible obtained by the use of a few tools than by using a
means the binding of books in luxurious casings, large number—the very variety and multiplicity of
but sought out, and actually destroyed, many the petits fers themselves in the latter case always
magnificent specimens of the finest work found in tending to minimise or dissipate the direct sim-
the libraries of the Aristocrats. It was this sense- plicity of the main design.
less crusade which led to the flight to England of In one place only is a modified extravagance, in
many Frenchmen, who carried on the craft of book- colour or design, to be allowed, and where it is
binders successfully as refugees in this country, and least likely to offend a bibliophile of taste; and that
to some extent to the ad-
vantage of our English
workers.
The examples ot my
own designs here illus-
trated are all "mosaic"
in character. The de-
corative effect in such
cases is largely due to
a harmonious blending
of inlaid, or supei imposed,
pieces of coloured leather
set in contrast with the
differently coloured ground
in which they are, as it
were, imbedded. The
labour involved in the
doing of work of this
class is, roughly speaking,
about twice what is ex-
pended on the production
of a merely gold-tooled pat-
tern, each piece of added
colour having to be at-
tached with care and neat-
ness to the spot it is to
occupy in the general
scheme of composition.
The warmer effects pro-
duced in this way will in-
variably repay one for the
extra time and trouble—
always provided that some
artistic taste be shown in
the selection of the colours
used, and that no violence
* " Essai sur la Decoration ex-
terieure des Livres.' Paris. 1878 BOOKBINDING BY SIR EDWARD SULLIVAN
38
than in England, remarked, " Partout on relie des of contrast be attempted in the general arrange-
livres, mais la Reliure d'art ne se fait actuellemeat ment of the design.
qu'en France."* Each of these reproductions is also meant to
To other eyes than a Frenchman's it would look illustrate a principle which Mr. Cobden-Sanderson
as if the art in France had never completely re- and other high authorities on the subject have
covered from the ruthless attack made upon it by constantly sought to inculcate—namely, that artistic
the Revolutionists at the end of the eighteenth results in the way of design are more readily to be
century, who not only discouraged by forcible obtained by the use of a few tools than by using a
means the binding of books in luxurious casings, large number—the very variety and multiplicity of
but sought out, and actually destroyed, many the petits fers themselves in the latter case always
magnificent specimens of the finest work found in tending to minimise or dissipate the direct sim-
the libraries of the Aristocrats. It was this sense- plicity of the main design.
less crusade which led to the flight to England of In one place only is a modified extravagance, in
many Frenchmen, who carried on the craft of book- colour or design, to be allowed, and where it is
binders successfully as refugees in this country, and least likely to offend a bibliophile of taste; and that
to some extent to the ad-
vantage of our English
workers.
The examples ot my
own designs here illus-
trated are all "mosaic"
in character. The de-
corative effect in such
cases is largely due to
a harmonious blending
of inlaid, or supei imposed,
pieces of coloured leather
set in contrast with the
differently coloured ground
in which they are, as it
were, imbedded. The
labour involved in the
doing of work of this
class is, roughly speaking,
about twice what is ex-
pended on the production
of a merely gold-tooled pat-
tern, each piece of added
colour having to be at-
tached with care and neat-
ness to the spot it is to
occupy in the general
scheme of composition.
The warmer effects pro-
duced in this way will in-
variably repay one for the
extra time and trouble—
always provided that some
artistic taste be shown in
the selection of the colours
used, and that no violence
* " Essai sur la Decoration ex-
terieure des Livres.' Paris. 1878 BOOKBINDING BY SIR EDWARD SULLIVAN
38