DOI Heft:
No. 151 (October, 1905)
DOI Artikel:Sullivan, Edward: Ornamental bookbinding in Ireland in the eighteenth century
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20713#0074
Ornament a l Bookbinding in Ireland
IRISH BOOKBINDING
House of Commons of Ireland. These legislative
bodies had apparently come to the conclusion at
an early stage of their existence that their
original manuscript Journals, containing,
as they did, the authentic records of
their parliamentary proceedings, were de-
serving of something more than ordinary
casings for their preservation. With the
exception of a few volumes, these Fair
Copy Journals of the Irish Houses of
Parliament are still in existence, embracing
the complete transcript of their doings
from the year 1613 to 1800, when the Act
of Union brought the series to a close.
The set now consists of 149 large folio
volumes, measuring on an average twenty-
one and a-half inches by fourteen and
a-half inches. Excepting some 01 the
earliest, on which calf or vellum is used,
they are bound in the finest Turkey, or
Barbary, leather procurable at the time,
and the gold tooling and inlaying on their
sides and backs exhibit the very acme of
the bookbinder’s art then reached in
Ireland. Considering the large number
of the volumes, and the magnificence and
bewildering variety of their artistic designs,
it may truly be said of them that there
56
is no such set of bound books to
be found in any part of the world.
They form a remarkable and in-
teresting oasis in the desert of the
Public Record Office of Ireland,
where, as in other Government
storehouses of original historical
and parochial documents, one
looks rather for dusty parchments
than for work of an exceptionally
decorative kind. It is not the
least satisfactory feature of the set
that their condition is in many
cases little inferior to what it was
when they were first bound, owing
to the fact that loose Spanish-
leather wrappings were originally
provided for nearly every volume,
and these are to a large extent still
in being. A number of the choicest
specimens have recently been ar-
ranged in glass cases at the Record
Office in Dublin for the purpose
of enabling them to be seen by
visitors.
The examples of this Irish work
shown in the accompanying illustrations give but
an inadequate notion of the originals, each of
IRISH BOOKBINDING
ABOUT A. D. 1796
ABOUT A.D. 1798
IRISH BOOKBINDING
House of Commons of Ireland. These legislative
bodies had apparently come to the conclusion at
an early stage of their existence that their
original manuscript Journals, containing,
as they did, the authentic records of
their parliamentary proceedings, were de-
serving of something more than ordinary
casings for their preservation. With the
exception of a few volumes, these Fair
Copy Journals of the Irish Houses of
Parliament are still in existence, embracing
the complete transcript of their doings
from the year 1613 to 1800, when the Act
of Union brought the series to a close.
The set now consists of 149 large folio
volumes, measuring on an average twenty-
one and a-half inches by fourteen and
a-half inches. Excepting some 01 the
earliest, on which calf or vellum is used,
they are bound in the finest Turkey, or
Barbary, leather procurable at the time,
and the gold tooling and inlaying on their
sides and backs exhibit the very acme of
the bookbinder’s art then reached in
Ireland. Considering the large number
of the volumes, and the magnificence and
bewildering variety of their artistic designs,
it may truly be said of them that there
56
is no such set of bound books to
be found in any part of the world.
They form a remarkable and in-
teresting oasis in the desert of the
Public Record Office of Ireland,
where, as in other Government
storehouses of original historical
and parochial documents, one
looks rather for dusty parchments
than for work of an exceptionally
decorative kind. It is not the
least satisfactory feature of the set
that their condition is in many
cases little inferior to what it was
when they were first bound, owing
to the fact that loose Spanish-
leather wrappings were originally
provided for nearly every volume,
and these are to a large extent still
in being. A number of the choicest
specimens have recently been ar-
ranged in glass cases at the Record
Office in Dublin for the purpose
of enabling them to be seen by
visitors.
The examples of this Irish work
shown in the accompanying illustrations give but
an inadequate notion of the originals, each of
IRISH BOOKBINDING
ABOUT A. D. 1796
ABOUT A.D. 1798