DOI issue:
No. 151 (October, 1905)
DOI article:Sullivan, Edward: Ornamental bookbinding in Ireland in the eighteenth century
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20713#0076
Ornamental Bookbinding in Ireland
this page, which came into my possession a little
time ago—was in all probability the Bible bound
for the same House at a slightly later date, the
tools used on it, and the general scheme of decora-
tion having many features in common with the
ornamentation to be found on the Lords’ Journal
for the years 1776-78. This last-mentioned Bible,
which in the original is of about the same size as the
general run of the Journals, is obviously the work
of Bradley. The large diamond panel is inlaid in
white, the rectangular centre of which is left open
so as to expose the red morocco in which the book
is bound.
The illustrations given of eighteenth-century
bindings of a smaller and more ordinary kind do
not exhibit so marked a difference from English
contemporary designs as do the Parliamentary
series. Irish binders, however, in doing work of
the higher class seem always to have had a strong
leaning towards the introduction of a variety of
colours—a white vellum centre-piece, whether oval
style. Possibly its failure
to take root in England
may have deterred them
from seeking to shape it to
their native ideas, or per-
haps the Irish craftsman, in
a justifiable anxiety to shun
anything too closely ap-
proaching imitation, con-
sidered that it was in its
nature a form of design
of insufficient elasticity to
admit of its being turned
into moulds that would be
unmistakably new.
In addition to thejournals,
a good many folio copies of
the Bible and the Book of
Common Prayer are known
to have been bound in more
or less sumptuous style for
the use of the Irish Houses
of Parliament. A Prayer
Book which had been in
use in the House of Lords
prior to the Union was one
of the volumes shown in a
representative collection ot
Irish bindings at the first
exhibition of the Arts and
Crafts Society of Ireland in
1895; and the Baskerville
Bible (1765), illustrated on irish bookbinding
53
Journal for 1785 shown at page 55; while a
suggestion of the Italian fan-pattern may be found
in the volume for 1795 on page 56. In all such
cases, however, the general device is so broadly
distinguishable from known specimens from
Scotland or Italy, that little credit can be
attributed to exotic types in the matter.
In other bindings from Ireland we find the well-
known “Cottage-roof” pattern introduced; but
here again it is handled in a fashion so different
from that which was adopted in England and other
places, that we are forced to the conclusion that
the Irish worker was trying to avoid, rather than to
copy, forms common to other countries—and
which he only made use of when he believed them
capable of developments which were not thought
of by the artists who employed them first. The
strapwork interlacing patterns of the Grolieresque
and Lyonese schools found no favour with the
binders of Ireland. I have not seen a single
example of their eighteenth-century work in this
a.d. 1765
this page, which came into my possession a little
time ago—was in all probability the Bible bound
for the same House at a slightly later date, the
tools used on it, and the general scheme of decora-
tion having many features in common with the
ornamentation to be found on the Lords’ Journal
for the years 1776-78. This last-mentioned Bible,
which in the original is of about the same size as the
general run of the Journals, is obviously the work
of Bradley. The large diamond panel is inlaid in
white, the rectangular centre of which is left open
so as to expose the red morocco in which the book
is bound.
The illustrations given of eighteenth-century
bindings of a smaller and more ordinary kind do
not exhibit so marked a difference from English
contemporary designs as do the Parliamentary
series. Irish binders, however, in doing work of
the higher class seem always to have had a strong
leaning towards the introduction of a variety of
colours—a white vellum centre-piece, whether oval
style. Possibly its failure
to take root in England
may have deterred them
from seeking to shape it to
their native ideas, or per-
haps the Irish craftsman, in
a justifiable anxiety to shun
anything too closely ap-
proaching imitation, con-
sidered that it was in its
nature a form of design
of insufficient elasticity to
admit of its being turned
into moulds that would be
unmistakably new.
In addition to thejournals,
a good many folio copies of
the Bible and the Book of
Common Prayer are known
to have been bound in more
or less sumptuous style for
the use of the Irish Houses
of Parliament. A Prayer
Book which had been in
use in the House of Lords
prior to the Union was one
of the volumes shown in a
representative collection ot
Irish bindings at the first
exhibition of the Arts and
Crafts Society of Ireland in
1895; and the Baskerville
Bible (1765), illustrated on irish bookbinding
53
Journal for 1785 shown at page 55; while a
suggestion of the Italian fan-pattern may be found
in the volume for 1795 on page 56. In all such
cases, however, the general device is so broadly
distinguishable from known specimens from
Scotland or Italy, that little credit can be
attributed to exotic types in the matter.
In other bindings from Ireland we find the well-
known “Cottage-roof” pattern introduced; but
here again it is handled in a fashion so different
from that which was adopted in England and other
places, that we are forced to the conclusion that
the Irish worker was trying to avoid, rather than to
copy, forms common to other countries—and
which he only made use of when he believed them
capable of developments which were not thought
of by the artists who employed them first. The
strapwork interlacing patterns of the Grolieresque
and Lyonese schools found no favour with the
binders of Ireland. I have not seen a single
example of their eighteenth-century work in this
a.d. 1765