MODERN &Their DESIGNERS Winter number of The Studio PeiCEjV nETT 1899-1900 londoN, i 5-Henrietta st covent garden "DESIGN FOR BOOK COVER" BY W. H. COWLISHAW. (Longmans, Green & Co.) THE STUDIO SPECIAL WINTER-NUMBER 1899-1900 MODERN BOOKBINDINGS AND THEIR DESIGNERS B RITISH TRADE BOOKBINDINGS AND THEIR DESIGNERS. BY ESTHER WOOD. Books hold a distinct place among the subjects of applied art Whatever beauty they may claim in form and ornament belongs to an order quite their own. They bear no relation to what are commonly called the necessaries of life, though no true book-lover would ever admit them to be less essential to his being. " Books are my tools," says the poor student who stints himself of food to gain what he deems more urgent means of development. " Books are my best friends," says the recluse when he shrinks from the keen interplay of wit with living men, and seeks the sympathy of those that ask no questions and drive no comments home. And whether as the instruments of knowledge, the delight of quiet hours, or supremely as the channels of the wisdom and aspiration of the past, books appeal to us for a certain decorative homage as temples wherein is enshrined the living sacrament of wisdom, the most immortal of mortal things. The nearest analogy to the art of bookbinding is that of dress. The apparel we associate with some gracious personality, the garments of ceremonial or of daily use and wont, have their counterpart in the covering and adornment of books. These demand a treatment quite other than that of even the choicest furniture, and different again from that of pure decoration, which needs only to harmonise with the general tone and quality of its setting, and is not governed by a preconceived* idea. The art of the bookbinder is to contrive a garb becoming HIIMW7�aMlllft� DESIGNED BY WALTER CRANE (Messrs. Harper and Brothers) 3 British Bookbindings to the author and to the nature of his work, just as the art of dress is to express in some degree the character and function of the wearer. To express�or at least to suggest�a personality other than his own, the artist must belong, not to the first order of great original and creative minds, but to the order of interpreters, which sometimes calls forth qualities of insight, of analysis and synthesis, hidden from genius and revealed to an exquisite intuitive talent, a scrupulous and discerning taste. Nor does this general distinction bar genius from the art of cover-design : on the contrary, there have been modern instances in which the cover has been greater than the book. But binding is essentially a collaborative art, requiring the most quick and delicate sympathies, like the task of the accompanist to a singer. In other arts and crafts a complete unity of achievement is sometimes possible; a Cellini may design, and forge, and ua,t ordains W.E.Henlex. LondonType ByWflliamNicholson DESIGNED BY WILLIAM NICHOLSON 4 carve, and finish his own works, from giant iron to golden filigree. Few authors are inclined or able to print, bind, and decorate their own books. Thus the most subjective and intangible things are laid under the hand of the practical craftsman : colour, form, and ornament are brought to bear upon the offspring of the mind. For literature itself is the most human and personal of the arts, and brings us nearer than any other to the knowledge of the individual man and woman. Painting and sculpture, steeped in the spirit of an age, or eloquent of a mood, a vision, of a master, never seems to give us so intimate a revelation of the heart and mind. Next to the actual magnetism of a voice and presence, no power can rival the influence of the written speech, in which emotion, intellect, and imagination have equal sway. The history of bookbinding is the history of the passing of literature from the stage of a private trust to that of a public possession. The wisdom of books has emerged from the custody of the priest and the law-giver and become the inheritance of the common people. Copyright works �by which, broadly speaking, is meant current literature�only represent a portion of the bookseller's stock, and not usually the portion in which the best bindings are found; for in spite of much vital and characteristic art bestowed on new publications in the matter of cover-designs, it is among books of assured fame and value that developments must chiefly be looked for on the main lines of the craft. The cover of a new book should naturally be rather a tentative and experimental thing. The book itself comes among us on probation, to find only (William Heinemann) DESIGNED BY LOUIS DAVIS (David Nutt) DESIGNED BY LOUIS DAVIS British Bookbindings gradually its proper niche upon � our shelves. So it seems right that the dress in which it first appears should be simple rather than elaborate, though not so modest as to be insignificant and fail to attract notice; on the contrary, it may well afford some challenge, and even be curious and fanciful, exciting interest in its title and contents. For this reason the designing of modern covers for the trade borders very closely upon poster-work, a questionable tendency at the best, and _ only admissible into ephemeral products, but quite intelligible in the light of modern conditions of sale. The cover in such cases has to serve the purpose of an advertisement, suggesting and commending, as far as possible, the contents of the volume to the buyer. It is only when the book itself has become approved and loved, or has DESIGNED BY GERALD MOIRA (Gears; approached in some degree to the measure of a classic, that it lends itself fully to hand-work, is promoted from the gown of cloth to that of leather, and generally passes at the same time from the unfeeling impress of machinery to the more human and responsible touch of tools. For the popularizing of literature means that bookbinding, as an art and handicraft, has long since ceased to keep pace with the demand for books. To place them within the reach of average purses was inevitably to bring machine-production to the bookseller's aid. Either the whole world of literature was to remain closed to nine out of ten of the community, or the fine handicraft of bookbinding must be supplanted for all ordinary purposes by low-priced machine-made covers. For a century or so the English public accepted the latter alternative. It is only within the last decade that a new question has arisen: a question which would have seemed almost impious to the first eager pioneers of handicraft revival, but which has steadily forced itself upon open-minded critics and craftsmen. Must Nail machine-work, under all circumstances, be hopelessly vulgar and commonplace ? Have we pronounced a final anathema on everything short of handicraft for applied art ? Is it possible to infuse at any point some genuine artistic spirit into what is called trade work ? To this question the cynic might, perhaps, put another: Have we in England any considerable public that cares at all whether we do so ? It cannot be denied that the modern world has developed, through the fecundity of books, a sort of cheapness fatal alike to intellectual and aesthetic discernment. The half-educated man, esteeming himself a bibliophile on the strength of the Penny Poets " and a pirated Ruskin, and thinking the covers of such productions quite good enough Bell &* Sons) at the price, unconsciously "DESIGN FOR BOOK COVER' By SELWYN IMAGE. [Samhsott le-iv 'S � o. British Bookbindings lowers the standard of beauty, of choiceness, both on his book-shelves and in his mind, asking, Why buy good books when cheap reprints go almost a-begging?�just as the indiscriminate Wagnerian says, Why go to Bayreuth when the Carl Rosa Opera Company will play "Lohengrin" to sixpenny seats ? Yet these questions have been partially answered, and in a hopeful way, by the rise in England of a small but distinct school of designers at work upon the covers of machine-bound books. The unique Beardsley can hardly be bracketed among them, though his influence upon all decorative draughtsmanship is now beyond dispute, and he was closely associated, in the Keynotes Series and other Bodley Head publications, with some of the earliest efforts to improve trade binding in this country. But the names of Charles Ricketts, Laurence Housman, H. Granville Fell, Charles DESIGNED BY ALTHEA GILES Robinson, F. D. Bedford, Alice B. Woodward, Talwin Morris and A. A. Turbayne occur to us among others as typical of the new departure on these lines. With these must be reckoned men already famous in larger and more original forms of art�Walter Crane, bringing over something of the Kelmscott traditions of beauty, and William Nicholson at the opposite pole of feeling, quickening and modernising design by his brilliant impressionist portraits, bordering upon the poster and upon caricature. The treatment of a cover-design�-or, as our American friends aptly call it, a "cover-stamp," thus Clearly marking it off from tooled work� seems to fall naturally into three methods. It may be symbolic, suggesting in imagery the subject and spirit of the book, or it may verge on the pictorial, and point the contents in an illustrative manner, or it may seek pure decoration, and concern itself only with the beautifying of a given space; subject, however, to the principle already laid down, that the decoration of books must always bear some direct intelligible relation to the literature within. We arrive thus at a rough-and-ready division of our cover-designers into symbolists, impressionists, and decorators: a classification which may be modified and enlarged as we come to consider more closely the individual manner and work. The revival of bookbinding on the side of handicraft is, of course, but one phase of that great movement in decorative art of which William Morris was the leader. But the modern development of the art of design in relation to trade bindings owes nothing directly to Kelmscott House. No account of that development can be fairly given 9 (Fisher Unwin) British Bookbindings without at least a cordial recognition of the stimulus it received through the enterprise of two young men from Harvard University, who, with the rare combination of wealth, culture, and youthful enthusiasm, went into business as publishers, and set themselves to create and foster a new taste in book-cover designs. The hint found quick response, and was thrown out almost simultaneously in Europe by the publishers who first staked a reputation on Beardsley and his colleagues of the Yellow Book. But the effort towards novelty, towards sincerity and vigour, did not confine itself to the audacious and peculiarly "new" art of the Yellow Book school. It represented also much serious and independent work that was being done by English designers both of high promise and of established fame. Firms of assured position were roused to set a higher standard of binding and decoration MAS TEK D K JKT H MOCKEK& MOCKED ALICE SAP.GANT DESIGNED BY REGINALD KNOWLES TO for their books, and gradually gathered round them groups of artists ready to give some of their best energies to cover-design. Further than this, the designers formerly identified with pure handicraft began to welcome a larger public for their work, and such names as those of Walter Crane, Henry Holiday, Selwyn Image, Herbert P. Home, Louis Davis, and W. H. Cowlishaw, with others of the Kelmscott lineage, entered the publishers' lists. The advance, it is needless to say, only represents a section of the English trade; and while welcoming a few of the first-fruits�here illustrated�of the efforts of its more enterprising and judicious pioneers, it would be vain to blind ourselves to the unreclaimed wilderness of cover-space, choked with the veriest weeds of draughtsmanship, which still runs to so vast an acreage in the booksellers' shop. Some clue to the long estrangement between merchant and artist may perhaps be gained from the admission shamelessly made the other day by a well-known publisher, that he never gave more than half-a-guinea for a cover design. Perhaps the first condition of merit in cloth-bound books is that they shall make no affectation of a higher origin than their own, or of a treatment proper to leather. Their beauty must always lie in design, in plan and conception, rather than in finish, though this at least may be neat, serviceable and sincere. They should indeed be wholly and obviously distinguished from those bound by handicraft, for the problem of bringing art, however indirectly, to bear upon commercial products is never solved by making machinery imitate the work of tools. The cover-design should be unmistakably printed or stamped, and not wrought or painted�half of the degradation of art in the present century has occurred through a false shame about processes, and a desire to get, by a quick method, an effect only honestly got by a slow one. Glue and wire, inadmissible in the ideal method, may be quite legitimate in the lesser. The cloth had better be left plain, or merely stamped with the title and its attributes, than have the quality of its surface frittered away by trivial or showy ornament. Only a good texture, however humble its nature in the scale (Dent &" Co.) of values, can hold a good design. DESIGN FOR BOOK COVER1 BY LAURENCE HOUSMAN. (George Bell & Sons.) HSSP mmm � ... : THE POEttS OF JOHNREATS -------GP *=3 hR DESIGNED BY \V. T. HORTON ( Unpublished) DESIGNED BY \Y. T. HORTON ( Unpublished) British Bookbindings It follows that artists accustomed to designs for reproduction will have an advantage in entering this field. The name of Walter Crane has always stood high in modern black-and-white illustration, and in decorative cartoons, textiles, and wallpapers. The buoyant Elizabethan atmosphere that charged his Triumph of Labour with such convincing dignity, vitality, and grace, is hardly less distinctive in his book-covers. With such material as Spenser's Shepheartfs Calender he is thoroughly at ease, and the breezy pastoral spirit of the original lends itself perfectly to the play of his own. A lighter but similarly congenial task has been fulfilled in A Floral Fantasy; and, although the latter is hardly more than a high-class nursery picture-book, it is, perhaps, in that aspect that it should be especially welcomed, for no branch of art is more potent for the future than that which appeals to the young, and sets more fixedly than we realise the taste of the coming generation. The work of Louis Davis must be given the highest credit for its influence in this field. Enabled by temperament to lose himself more wholeheartedly in child-lore than Walter Crane, whose creations are more self-conscious, less convincingly artless and naive�he has given us, perhaps, the most winsome children to be found in modern black-and-white. It has often been said with regard to literature that what seem to us the most powerful studies of child-life are by no means those that commend themselves most favourably to little readers. So in art we can never be sure that our favourite pictures of children will become popular in the nursery. But there is in the designs of this artist a peculiarly bright and sympathetic touch, which keeps his subjects well within the child's own world, and lights them with the near light of common interests and ideas. In Mrs. Dollie Radford's Goodnight, he has been fortunate in collaborating with an artist of kindred spirit and charm ; and the cover-design harmonises well with the poems within. To the same school, but to a somewhat more austere and serious temperament, belongs the work of Selwyn Image, of which a slight but favourable example is given in the cover for Representative Painters of the Century. It is essentially the work of a mature, highly cultivated, and perfectly disciplined imagination, neither lacking in freshness nor losing strength in over-refinement and subtlety of thought. The volume comes from a publishing house which has long been associated with books about art and artists, and is therefore looked to for some worthy lead in the decoration of their covers. In considering the excursions thus made into BESIGXKU BY CHARLES ROB1.NSOX 14 (John Lane) "DESIGN FOR BOOK COVER" BY GRANVILLE FELL. (6\ M. Dent & Co.) ;��<��;�>� THE IMAGE BREAK* *ERS Q GERTRUDE DIX [heiwemannj THE IMAGE BREAKERS o GERTRUDE DIX fSzSi DESIGNED BY CHARLES E. DAWSON ( William Heinemann) PJUD& mgwa, j| jforc DESIGNED BY PAUL WOODROFFE (Dent &> Co.) h 8 i d PQ o <, > WORKSOF TENNYSON vol ax MA v ; * DESIGNED BY A. A. TURBAYNE (Macmillan &Co.) , DESIGNED BY A. A. TURBAYNE (Oxford Press) British DESIGNED BY TALWIN MORRIS (Blackie Of Son) trade-work by those whom we generally associate with William Morris and his circle, it would be unjust to omit the name of W. Harrison Cowlishaw, who, though chiefly distinguished in architecture and the larger branches of design and handicraft, has contributed by the neglected art of illumination to the beautifying of hand-bound books, and has given us one or two cloth cover-designs of agreeable memory. Near, but yet clearly distinct from the Kelmscott group, is the delicate and highly poetic talent of R. Anning Bell. Though finding its fullest and happiest expression in gesso, it has been abundantly fruitful in decorative black and white, in exquisite illustrations and title-pages, and in cover-designs which fascinate us, not by power, but by a rare simplicity and purity of conception, a subtle and ethereal grace. The artist belongs tb the line, perhaps, most sure of its succession�the line of those who concern themselves with beauty, and beauty alone; for whom no real or apparent conflict between truth and beauty ever disturbs the serenity of vision, in a world peopled with forms all tender and joyous, pensive and ideal. Charles Ricketts and Laurence Housman okbindings represent a more robust and virile imagination, working through individualities strongly distinct, both from the preceding designers and from each other. The former, though he has made his mark most widely in black-and-white illustration, is even more admirable, and certainly no less original, in cover-designs, of which his Silver-points occurs to us as the best illustration. In this dainty and wonderfully fit design, the decorative use of vertical lines, popularised by Aubrey Beardsley and imitated by Louis Rhead and others of the trail left by that meteor in the wake of his genius, is most effective. The art of Laurence Housmanf which has overrun design into literature, � has been largely associated with that of the pre-Raphaelites, from his cover of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market to that of the newest volume on her brother's work. This last�the cover-design for Messrs. Bell's handsome volume on Dante Gabriel Rossetti�fulfils its decorative purpose with dignity and charm. It belongs to the successes of pure ornament; rich in conception, strongly composed, and congruous with the temperament of the author. It is in this vein that Laurence Housman's work becomes most satisfying to the mind and eyes. In designed by talwin morris (Blackie fir1 Son) 20 "DESIGN FOR BOOK COVER" BY LAURENCE HOUSMAN. (John Lane.) DRH/imVl : , (h mid � : A � DESIGNED BY TALWIN MORRIS (Blackie &-" .�?�^ TME HANDSOME BRANDO/IS � tovr/iARine iyham DESIGNED BY TAIAVIN MORRIS (Blackie Son) GARDENS OLD AND NEV\� DESIGNED BY W. JENKINS (Geoi'ge Newnes <&� Co.) GIOV BATT DESIGNED BY w. JENKINS British Bookbindings figure-drawing his power verges continually on the grotesque�as perfervid, convulsive, riotous, and restless almost as that of Blake; but, as with so many on whose spirit the burden of romantic feeling presses hard, it is in the beauty of the earth itself that " the heavy and the weary weight, the burden of the mystery," is lightened; and by the choice and use of natural forms a richly sensuous fancy attunes itself more perfectly to artistic ends. Alike in Laurence Housman and in Charles Ricketts, the pre-Raphaelite tradition persists in spite of and alongside of their own individual gift. The work of the latter, indeed, may be said to form a link�theoretically inconceivable, but actually undeniable�between the pre-Raphaelites and Aubrey Beardsley. Much of his black-and white drawing is curiously reminiscent of Frederick Sandys at his best, in the period, say, of Danae in the Brazen Chamber, with its audacious paganism DESIGNED BY MRS 26 MACDONALD EXECUTED BY THE GUILD OF WOMEN BINDERS of spirit and sumptuous decorative detail. Yet, on the other hand, Beardsley himself was hardly more exotic, more conventional, in the treatment of the human figure. In the creations of Charles Ricketts we have the very antithesis of pre-Raphaelitism, if by that we mean in any sense a return to Nature, to simplicity, to the passionate dignity of a free and ardent life. His cover-designs for the most part represent a phase of his art distinct from anything he has done or sought in illustration. More spontaneous and simple in style, and indisputably more beautiful. His symbolism here becomes more chastened and less laboured, and is. always subservient to decorative effect. Thu^ he shares with Laurence Housman the title of a decorative symbolist, seeking beauty supremely, but pursuing it by devious and fanciful ways, mystic, suggestive, and full of intellectual motive and idea. In both of these, as in another draughtsman of their � kindred, C. H. Shannon, the curious pedigree hunter in art may trace the influence of Blake�still so subtle . and inestimable a force that, after the lapse of a century, the teeming chaos of his world of vision has been reduced in the third generation to some aesthetic coherence. In the work of H. Granville Fell we come upon one of the most sincere and graceful of modern designers. Allied on one side to the foregoing artists in decorative intent, he breaks from them in a certain largeness and leisure of handling which they miss in intensity of idea. Less original and less inspired than either, he yields less permanent interest and satisfaction but more immediate pleasure. Seeking a wider world to conquer than those to whom medievalism is the last British Bookbindings �. g. v-"~x S PHjj DESIGNED BY MRS. MACDONALD EXECUTED BY THE GUILD OF WOMEN BINDERS word of the ideal, he has attained more dignity and sobriety of power than any contemporary of equal �decorative skill. It is doubtful if any other available illustrator would have surpassed Granville Fell in his designs for the Song of Solomon and the Book of fob, both of which have been justly reckoned among the " books of the year." This, it will perhaps be urged, is not saying very much, considering the poverty of the present decade in subjective art, given over as it is to external impressionism, and lacking in any such constructive thinkers as Rossetti, the early Millais, and Frederick Sandys. But the refined and judicious quality of his talent finds singularly congenial scope in the most idyllic love-song of Judaea, and the great dramatic masterpiece of Hebrew literature�the tragedy all the more exacting to the interpreter because of the fragmentary and " bowdlerized " condition in which its successive editors have handed it down. The artist has made the best use of an academic training in which a "knowledge of the figure" is the sole ideal, and has done for himself what such students are left to do�to gain independently their knowledge of design. The same credit must be given to another academically sound draughtsman�Gerald Moira; gifted perhaps with a stronger sense of beauty, especially in colour, and incarnating it in more vigorous and distinguished types. His cover for the Chiswick Shakespeare is a rich and satisfying decoration, frankly modern, yet just sufficiently choice and austere to be worthy of its association with our greatest English name. Poets have suffered much at the hands of their interpreters�illustrators, decorators, commentators of all kinds, by pen, brush, or pencil. Keats has been a specially favourite mark of aspiring designers. Shelley seems to have escaped with but a few random shots. Omar Khayyam may be said to have died daily of inconsequent binding, and Tennyson has borne the brunt of experiments with Rossetti and W. B. Yeats. One of the most distinctively " new " men�W. T. Horton�has lately thus spent himself upon the English classics, though not always with such failure as we have hinted at in the matter of artistic results. Still, it must be said that a spirit steeped in that weird and fantastic beauty which is closely akin to ugliness is hardly the spirit in which to approach Shakespeare or 27 British Bookbindings Keats. True, the positively offensive features of the Coleridge book-cover�accountable, if not pardonable, in relation to the author of Christabel �are absent from the two we reproduce. There is, moreover, a certain grave, elusive charm in the designer's use of quasi-classic, quasi-renaissance landscape, in spite of its obvious derivation from Beardsley, and its naive botanical blunders�the same conventionalized tree having a straight stem when it grows in the ground and a crooked one when it is put into a vase or pilaster. Though identified very closely with what is called the Celtic revival, represented in Ireland by W. B. Yeats and in Scotland by two distinct "schools" at Glasgow and Edinburgh, the art of W. T. Horton is as yet too vagrant to be "placed" and classified, and seems at first sight curiously remote from the passionate and wistful Celtic twilight so charged with mystic colour and the poetry of dreams. Nothing could be colder and more austere in feeling than these two cover-designs for Shakespeare and KeatS) or in greater contrast to the tender human pathos and poignancy of The Secret Rose. Other designs, however, which we have seen from the same hand reveal a nearer if a still uncanny beauty, a wonderful delicacy of decorative line which might find much more successful inspiration in the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. The name of Patrick Geddes, so honourably associated with the intellectual and aesthetic life of modern Edinburgh, is also largely representative of the revival of creative art in that centre, of which the publication of The Evergreen was a pleasing and "nopeful witness. The cover-designs for that delightful and too deciduous issue must not be forgotten in a mention, however brief, of those vigorous young designers who share, with a similar group in Glasgow, the honours of the renaissance in the North. But it is in Talwin Morris that we find at once the most typical and prolific of the Celtic school of design. With an original, but as yet undisciplined, imagination he unites a fastidious, if somewhat uncertain, taste; and the results, if not equally inspired, are always interesting and characteristic of individual feeling. Among the examples which we reproduce, the covers for The Handsome Brandons, Literary Pastimes, and The Admiralty House are the most successful. The Eagle's Nest might reveal still higher qualities of design were it not spoilt somewhat in the photograph by the emphasis given to the white. But there has been an effort to repeat at all costs on the back the decorative formulae employed on the face of the volume�an illustration of a sound 28 principle too literally employed. The ideal of the back design should be to form an organic total, if we may so express it, rather than a summing up of details ; an end almost perfectly achieved by another artist, Chas. E. Dawson, in his cover for The Image. Breakers, which shall be presently described. Talwin Morris, indeed, has come well within sight of it in the Literary Pastimes above mentioned. His free and facile decorative line is here used with the most admirable reserve and refinement; while in The Handsome Brandons a more romantic and naturalistic figure is no less-happily introduced. The richly eclectic talent of this artist has led him, perhaps almost inevitably, to absorb certain mannerisms which have crept into modern design, through the opening up of sa many sources of knowledge and inspiration from the art of the past. Never in the history of aesthetic expression was the work of past ages and all lands laid so widely under contribution to the work of to-day. From, the Greek vase and the Egyptian papyrus to the Indian lotus and the bamboo of Japan, from the symbols of human passion to those of heavenly light and fire, there is* hardly a decorative convention that has not been borrowed, adapted, degraded, and restored again in succeeding generations till neither the individual nor the age, if even the nation, can claim them asks own. The formula which we may call the " compressed heart " is a special favourite with the decorators of the present decade.. We have it in our carpets, our wall-papers-, our inlaid wood, our beaten metal, in every form of wrought, woven, stamped, or printed ornament, and in the book-covers of Talwin Morris it greets us yet again. His use of it in The Admiralty House is very ingenious, if not quite pleasing,�whether set upon. a wicket at the back of the book, or on a pikestaff in the front of it. The proportions- of the design are beautiful, the lines delicate and strong; and if the grouped dots are a little superfluous* the dainty affectation of the signature, or cryptic "mark," of the designer is very pardonable, and, indeed, in keeping with his style. The cover for Her Friend and Mine has probably lost something, both in the first and in the second reproduction. The lettering both in this and in The Admiralty House is- excellent in character, in proportion, and in suitability to the nature of the design. The use of italics�so very rarely harmonious with a conventional decoration �is agreeably and skilfully managed in The Eagle\ Nest In the volume on Gladstone the end cover is more restful and satisfying than the front; while: the back affords, as it should do,, a good rksume of Bm*L kmm> DESIGNED BY. MRS. TRAQUAIR EXECUTED BY THE GUILD OF WOMEN BINDERS DESIGNED BY MRS. TRAQUAIR EXECUTED BY THE GUILD OF WOMEN BINDERS British Bookbindings the two. Of this artist it may be said that even his failures are clever failures, and carry with them a certain wayward charm far more to be welcomed than the successes of the merely orthodox and correct. The design for the The Image Breakers, by Chas. E. Dawson�a young artist already known in the realm of posters�seems to owe less than any other recent book-cover to the work of more experienced craftsmen. It is at once symbolical and decorative, summing up in a few finely-conceived outlines the purport of the book�a story of two souls seeking each other in the garden of life, and brought together in the chastening fires of experience and love. The plan and proportions of the design are bold and good, and a wise judgment and reserve have saved the symbolic from lapsing into the pictorial, and losing thereby its subtle and suggestive charm. On the back the decoration, based upon the human form, unites an almost primitive simplicity of line with a distinctly modern quality of emotional expression. The aesthetic effect of the few slender curves by which* the- artist has suggested- the embracing figures^ rises almost to the order of music. The technical efficiency of the design is fortified by a knowledge of reproductive processes which allows for something less than perfect printing, and yet maintains unimpaired the essential quality and spirit of the drawing. With the cover of Gardens Old and New we may welcome another new-comer in design� W. Jenkins, a young Canadian, whose work shows great promise and admirable achievement, in strength and dignity of composition and in a certain warm and mellow beauty of colour. This decoration, with its bold and simple letters and its singular harmony of parts, forms one of the most satisfying book-covers of the year. Side by side with the leaders of the younger generation, there are always certain men whose rich equipments of taste and culture serve to balance the lack of any strong inspiration or originality in their art. Individuality they may have, and an imagination more stable, if more limited, than that of the symbolists; giving us, indeed, some of the most exquisite forms of pure decoration. To this important group belongs the judicious and perfectly ordered talent of A. A. Turbayne. In him, the poetic quality of Tennyson finds an almost ideal interpreter, and his cover for the Life and Works of the late laureate affords a handsome series of volumes, decorated at the back with a singularly rich and dignified design, and on the face with a simple medallion, of which the only criticism that 3� suggests itself is that it might be brought a trifle nearer to the optical centre of the book. The Shakespeare Anthology is adorned with an adroit convention from the typically English rose. Intricate and obscure, it does not weary us by a perplexing challenge to the eye, but fulfils very happily the aim of a pattern ; not thrusting its detail upon us, but revealing it gradually as a pleasant surprise. Here, as in the Tennyson, the title is well set, the lettering is good, and the space provided for it occurs well in the decoration, forming, as it should do, an integral part of the scheme. Yet, even among such meritorious designs, it may not be out of place to remember that the development of pattern, however beautiful, has always a tendency to lead to the undervaluing of the quality of space in design, and the consequent neglect of the material which the pattern adorns. Certainly, our contact with the Japanese has done much to correct this tendency in the younger generation, but we may still observe, even in designers of such calibre as the one now under discussion, this characteristic timidity in the matter of empty space. The habit of filling up blanks among the lettering by small decorative figures is by no means universally appropriate, and even in the Tennyson cover just referred to the ornament following the "and" is not only superfluous but quite irrelevant to the rest of the design. A similar difficulty has occurred around the second word of the title Encyclopedia Biblica, and one cannot but think that it might have been more boldly handled than by merely filling up the panel in which this is set. On the same book-cover the publishers' initials�A. & C. B.�might have been made into a simpler monogram. As it stands, the eye seeks a fourth letter on the left to balance the C, but is only half satisfied by what may possibly be intended for the "ampus and." Obscurity of detail is pardonable in pattern, but in lettering never. This, if it cannot stand out quite legibly among the decoration, had better be entirely separate. The mention of Japanese influence in relation to English draughtsmanship�an allusion in which a whole new world of criticism is opened up� suggests the name of at least one cover designer who has felt that influence strongly, and responded to it without any loss of native and original power. We refer to J. D. Batten, whose work in the direction of colour-prints has long been familiar to readers of The Studio. The work of Edmund H. New stands equally alone * in delicate fancy and an inspiration wholly English, and largely eighteenth-century, in character. British Bookbindings Though hitherto known chiefly by his dainty little architectural and landscape drawings in black-and-white, his book-plates, similar in subject-matter, and his illustrations to Isaac Walton, this artist has recently entered the field of cover-design, and with full justification in the beautiful edition of White's Selborne, the preparation of which was among the many worthy labours of the late Grant Allen's life; and also in a pretty little garden-book, My Roses, by Helen Milman, which he has decorated in cloth of red. In work of this kind, all that is choicest in the eighteenth-century spirit is enshrined; purged of its artificialities, and seen through a medium of a sincere temperament, it becomes almost genial in its grace and leisure, its trim and careful ease. Paul Woodroffe, following with more blithe and playful mien in the footsteps of that somewhat idealistic draughtsman, also celebrates the Jane Austen period and that little social world which, though covering several later decades, belongs essentially to the last century's life. His design for Pride and Prejudice is conceived in an equally sympathetic spirit, and with an added buoyancy of touch. It was in the delineation of this half-historic, half-imaginary world of tripping maidens with poke-bonnets and short waists, of pastoral sweetness and innocent town gaiety, that women�such as Alice Havers and Kate Greenaway�began to enter the paths of illustration and cover-design. That delightful humorist Hugh Thomson did much to maintain the wholesome and kindly treatment of the Georgian age, which is the very antithesis of the conception nurtured by the more modern and cynical school. Among the younger women designers Chris Hammond may be cordially recognised as having kept the more rose-coloured vision in her illustrations to books of this period, and shown a fresh and delicate talent in her covers for Emma and Sense and Sensibility. Gertrude Bradley stands honourably among the designers for children's books, and her name will be found associated not only with the covers, but also with the inside decorations of several delightful new children's books. In DESIGNED BY MISS JESSIE KING EXECUTED IN FOUR COLOURS AND GOLD ON PAPER BY HERR WERTHEIM. 31 British Bookbindings Alice B. Woodward we have an artist of-more robust and original quality, already acknowledged in the front rank of women designers, and gifted, perhaps, "with a finer sense of composition in draughtsmanship than any of her peers. Yet another young designer of remarkable, but wholly different, endowments remains to be mentioned. The name of Althea Giles belongs properly to the neo-Celtic school, and her cover for the Poems of W. B. Yeats is highly characteristic of a sombre, mystical, and weird imaginative power, expressing itself through a talent still vagrant and diffuse. Some sins of omission will doubtless be charged against this brief survey of recent cloth book-covers, but at this point one or two of them may find correction. The example which we give of Althea Giles calls to mind a somewhat similar, though more immature, effort by Reginald Knowles in the cover for Alice Sargant's Master Death. In the lettering lies the most conspicuous weakness of this design ; and poor lettering is less pardonable on a book than poor decoration. From the ranks of more mature and competent draughtsmen the names of the brothers Robinson also occur to us, in connection with some of the most pleasing covers of recent years. Everyone will remember the pleasure'given last Christmas by Charles Robinson's Child's Book of Saints. His new cover for Pierrette takes us frankly from the religious to the pagan world, and the sumptuous pageantry of the former work gives place to the humorous revels of a fairy pantomime. This is a very successful instance of a semi-pictorial decoration carried right across the cover, including the back, and consisting of three well-composed and satisfying parts, which, when seen together, form a still more complete and pleasing whole. Two graceful designs by T. H. Robinson, for Gray's Elegy and Thackeray's Esmofid, and one by W. H. Robinson for The Talking Thrush, must also be reckoned in the roll of praise. Quite other traditions govern the work of the " decorative impressionists "�if we may so describe such men *as .William 'Nicholson, J. Hassall, Cecil Aldin, and Dudley Hardy, known chiefly to the public through their posters and kindred pieces of broad and pictorially " sketchy " art. Whatever success they may achieve in cover-design can only be fitly associated with " books of the hour "�for railway reading, for summer holidays, and every kind of occasional interest, pertaining distinctively to journalism rather than to literature. This . von: AHHA SCffiBEL �� �%>. <$y$}�** hapwsftp DESIGNED EV MISS JESSIE KING 32 EXECUTED IN FOUR COLOURS AND GOLD ON CLOTH BY HERR WERTHEIM MANUSCRIPT CASE DESIGNED BY D. S. MacCOLL, EXECUTED BY MISS E. M. MacCOLL DESIGNED BY D. S. MacCOLL British Bookbinaings DESIGNED BY D. S. MacCOI.L EXECUTED BY MISS E. M. M^COLL DESIGNED BY IX S. MACCOLL EXECUTED BY MISS E. M. MacCOI.L 34 definition does not preclude the application of very genuine and admirable art to uses which assume the nature of advertisements, serving, as we have already said, to attract the pui-chaser of the volume by a vigorous impressionistic hint of its contents. The cover of William Nicholson's London Types reproduces one of the most effective of his clever colour-prints (to use the phrase without too accurate intention) which form the substance of the book, and are aptly " illustrated " by the quatrains of W. E. Henley ; one of the most loyal of London's sons. This cover, so thoroughly efficient for the purpose it is meant to serve, shows us perhaps the best that can be done with art of this unique '"and limited kind. On a smaller scale, and with more traces of the Japanese in composition and colouring, are the charmingly piquant little covers by J. Hassall for Two Little Friends and several other children's books, as eloquent of the nursery as Nicholson's is racy of the street's. Both Cecil Aldin and Dudley Hardy have also brought the poster-style to bear upon book-covers; the former with admirable taste and charm in W'ON*HIS*AU"/:S*iH*-FO ^S^iJ M^y Jti+WL 1' t <: -g a xn i Hd � s >!-0'oa* s i �ii^.c-asrx-v-GMV.Hi aa^afe^.^y^jj^t^l^y^g^^ >-;.,s :js.- ��� p* 13 U O o en < ?4 O t> o a ft � D O w H ft S3 < o S o < 0 & O a >< � o H frt O M y. a P <� a � z � in � ART ANDTHE BEAUTY OFTHE EARTHS BY WILLIAM MORRIS M A LECTURE' DELIVERS! BURSLEM IN 1881 DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY DOUGLAS COCKERELL DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY DOUGLAS COCKERELL British Bookbindings his Two Little Runaways, published last year. To pass from these to the adjoining field of paper covers would be beyond our present task, but a word may here be said as to the better ideals now coming into force for the treatment even of paper-bound books. It often happens that a deterioration in one branch of art�or, let us say, the degradation of a �certain material�results in the higher development of the next thing beneath it in order of worth. The abuse of gold and silver leads to a renaissance in copper and iron. A glut in the silk market reacts favourably on homespuns and cottons. In the same way the recent profuse and feelingless turn-out of cloth covers with so little distinction of design, so little care for the texture itself, as in the great bulk of machine-bound books, has produced the inevitable reaction towards paper. In America, especially, cover-papers are now prepared which, in colour, substance, and the surface they present to the touch, are very far to be preferred to cloth of the ordinary quality. DESIGNED BY A. A. TDRHAYNK EXECUTED BY W. T. MORREI.l. Already English H!*l \. V \ \ A \ M ' \ \\ \ \ V.*'- .� A. ,^ - �N*� #^" ff\* �X, �B " .� .� -X- .f. gfe|Efc Kimball) iflKi , yiSMj Hfew^^) u ^i||H inLi- h A A. f H SaB V'-^||S&t j i 1! � tf( ill iniak StWH Y _ Till ' 1 DESIGNED BY B G. GOODHUE (fohn Lane) DESIGNED BY E. S. HOLLOWAY (J. B. Lippincott Company) A QUEEN OF HEARTS iiii~- by wn ELIZABETH PHIPPS TRAIN III .-.�* III �sr i �J w �c 4 Al /.* A .C* U �6* 'Al. I ;*W DESIGNED BY E. S. HOLLOWAY f/. i?. Lippincott Company) DESIGNED BY MARGARET ARMSTRONG (Charles Set-liner's Sons) i'"'r| bKWergzX ,..'?; *^>�$ 4-' ^' -...... V.! rV ? || CL^W i � .........J I DESIGNED BY MRS. JOHN LANE (The Century Comfany) n\ss AYR ^1___ VIRGINIA DESIGNED BY F. R. KIMBOROUGH (77. S. Stone & Co.) American Bookbindings gold which surrounds it, seem rather forced and over-wrought. This portion of the decoration would have been better if it had been carried out in colours harmonising more with those of the ground. It is pleasant to note that this cover bears the monogram of the designer, for the importance of signed handicraft-work cannot be insisted on too strongly or too frequently. We congratulate both the artist and her publishers on the breadth of view that permits so simple and reasonable a piece of straight dealing. The same artist has produced an effective composition of poppies and pipe-stems in crimson, light green and gold, on coarse white canvas, for Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle. This is, one would imagine, a good " saleable" cover, though from the critical point of view it must not be too closely considered, and the lettering cries aloud for condemnation. �&. m: m. i f 1 � 1 ft 1 ft 1 * l>\ 1 U. rW rrff pW^ VM? . / 3 DESIGNED BY MARGARET ARMSTRONG (G. P. Putnam's Sons) Among covers of which the ornament can be discussed with no especial reference to the contents of the book we illustrate yet another, by Margaret Armstrong, Costume of Colonial Times. This is a pretty binding in,a useful combination of grey and green, with gilt lettering; and is fitly reminiscent of the eighteenth century in pattern. The same artist is also responsible for the design of How to know Wild Flowers, the cover-paper of which, in green and pink, is far more satisfactory to the eye than the grey, silver and brown of the cloth. The ribbon encircling the stem is weakly treated, and the device on it by no means well done. E. S. Holloway has produced an excellent exercise in modern ornament for A Last Century Maid, though, perhaps, we might have appropriately classified it with those showing the Beardsley influence. But that influence is now so widely spread that, short of an approach to imitation, it has passed almost into current use and should be so accepted. The colour in this example is good, and, altogether, the result is quite pleasing. W. S. Hadaway was perhaps a little aware of the same sources of inspiration in a design for A Queen of Hearts. But, all the same, it is a good cover and excellent for its purpose. He is also successful, from the commercial point of view, in that for A Bad Little Girl and Her Good Little Brother; though the copy before us might have been more effective if more brilliant colours had been selected. Quite one of the best of the series in our hands is the design by Amy M. Sacker for A Loyal Little Maid. It is graceful, not overdone, and well-spaced; it shows, moreover, that quality of reticence which is too often lacking in the productions of the modern American school. Another design by the same artist, that for Old Paris, Vol. I., brings us to another category entirely. Here the inspiration is drawn from tooled work, and this cover is a very good exercise in the style from every point of view. It is high praise to say that it is quite sound enough to deserve to be carried out by the 54 MRSEDITH-CUTHELL �: ~- DESIGNED BY W. S. HADAWAY (S.P.C.K.) mi ) ):]7FJ\S UFA MYMOAN DESIGNED BY MARGARET ARMSTRONG (G. P. Putnam's Sons) DESIGNED BY MRS. HENRY WHITMAN ( Houghton, Mifflin &= Co.) DESIGNED BY W. H. BRADLEY French Bookbindings old processes. Somewhat akin in elements and treatment, but altogether weaker, is Mrs. Henry Whitman's design for The Story of Christine Rochefort. Still, the result is by no means to be despised and the cover has distinct merit. T. B. Hapgood, Junr., has been able to attain to a very creditable mingling of the old and the new, in Friend or Fortune. The introduction of the conventional ship at top and bottom of the trellis is well managed, and the back has been judiciously let alone in. order to assist the effect. On the whole, we may say that American designers are still producing good work, if they have dropped from their earlier pride of place. But the whole thing is really in the hands of the publishers. If they will only condescend to understand that one cover may conceivably be better than another, Hi, i'KJt S: ~s � >l \ 'X X and worth paying for accordingly, the standard will soon rise. For there is now no reason why the art of designing for cloth book-covers should not get its share of the best talent available among those artists who consider decoration seriously. F RENCH BOOKBINDINGS. BY OCTAVE UZANNE. DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY RENE WIENER There have been, and there are still to be, written whole books devoted to the history of modern French decorative binding. For my own part, I have published two volumes and a numerous series of articles on contemporary art binding and on the external adornment of books. The subject is far from being exhausted, however, for we are in the midst of what may be termed an " ornamental movement," and the art of gilding on morocco, long dormant, or, at best, carried on in dull, traditional, vulgar fashion, had hitherto been afforded no chance of developing side by side with other industries. Now, however, ardent and ingenious innovators abound, and one cannot foresee any limit to the imagination they display, or to the variety of their styles and methods. We have the reliure-tableau, which reveals a symbolic, symphonic, emblematic spirit; and also the reliure sculptee en bas-reliefs, modelled on leather and relieved by colour�knick-knack binding, in a word, which, as a rule, must be tkept under glass, and is in no way suitable for work whose place is on the library shelves. This was the form in which binding took its place some eight years ago in the " Objets d'art" section of the Champ de Mars, thanks to the 57 French Bookbindings DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY A. LEPERE exertions of two distinguished artists, MM. Victor Prouve' and Camille Martin, who at that time had, as executive collaborator, M. Rene Wiener, of Nancy. At first the public was surprised and puzzled, while the professional book gilders protested indignantly that this was not real binding at all but a sham, clumsily contrived, and lacking in all the essentials requisite for the proper handling of morocco and the employment of high-class gilding. From their own fastidious point of view these professional workers, imbued with the marvellous principles of the brothers Eve, Le Gascon, Derome, Bozerian, Du Seuil and Thouvenin, were certainly right, for to their eyes a profane, newfangled, revolutionary style was invading the sacred temple wherein,, for centuries past, there had accumulated all the master-pieces of good taste, exquisite in style, perfect in technique and execution. All that was apparent to them was a gross evidence of decadence, with none of the attributes which had constituted the glory of their craft: good cutting, elegant mounting, a thorough mastery of the rognure, the delicate work with the petits fers, the beattjg; of the gold, the difficult line work�all the subtfedetails,. in fact, which showed the cunning hand of the-Skilled workman trained in the old methods. Instead, they saw with dismay a strange new style, aiming solely at 58 effect, ignoring finish, caring nought for minute detail, regarding only the general aspect, the ensemble. All the old formula? were cast to the winds by the innovators, or else adapted beyond recognition. To all these objections and criticisms the newcomers had the not illogical answer: "We are artists, not trade binders. We are bent on enlarging the scope of a superannuated art, for ever confined within certain narrow limits. We bring new formula?, we aim at expressive ornamentation with boundless possibilities, and with our artistic binding we give new life to a craft which hitherto had been bound up in technical restrictions, and had consequently remained very primitive in its forms. We know nothing of the industrial side of the question; but clever craftsmen are not lacking, and when we join forces with them they will devote their practical knowledge, their precision and their finish to the carrying out of our purely aesthetic and imaginative work. When they need mechanical assistance in their labours, painters and sculptors and artists generally know where to obtain it, and how to employ it. Why should it not be the same with regard to book-binding ? When we have succeeded in convincing the public, and gradually made clear and established our principles of decorative beauty, we shall find in the binder's workshop all that is DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY P. RUBAN French Bookbindings �#f% '*,. ft (Si LWJ9 I -ftl 'm 1 J l:i< ^':;a, � ����� rv 1 i 1 DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY CHARLES MEUNIER DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY CHARLES MEUNIER AMM�MHjaa4!�it!�iMaiffltiaiMa^ - TV ! \- .............^ :�^ � -m a revival of some of the best traditions of the past, entirely new and genuinely artistic influences have been brought to bear upon the whole question, and the Danes are to be much congratulated upon the vast strides which everything connected with the binding of books has made during the latter part of the present decade. Designers of rare and original- talent have worked hand in hand with able and enthusiastic craftsmen, and the excellent results of this co-Operation has already more than once been commented upon in The Studio. The new movement is characterized, not only by freedom and originality of design, but also by the introduction of a decorative variety in colour, hitherto unknown, which has, perhaps, more especially benefitted the less elaborate �nd costly bindings. The sensitive and sober good taste of the Danes has also shown itself in this connection, and it is somewhat surprising that we do not find even the faintest trace of that weakness for a rather vulgar overloading which is so much in vogue in a neighbouring country. A peculiar form of binding, or rather cover, now in general use in Denmark is a paper cover, especially designed for each individual book and forming part and portion of the same. Collectors nearly always retain these particular covers on their volumes. They are often striking and highly ornamental, and act as a sort of miniature poster, making the bookseller's window attractive in more than one sense of the word. I am not sure whether Demark has not in a way originated this pretty idea�at the same time artistic and inexpensive�but in any case Danish covers of this description can vie with those of any other country. As a rule> the nature of the ornamentation of the cover is in close harmony with the contents of the book, and it is the exception, that it is of a purely decorative nature. Gerhard Heilmann, who is nothing if hot decorative, has done a number of very charming covers of this END PAPER �74 DESIGNED BY GERHARD HEILMANN p H P O Q < Q W o Danish Bookbindings kind, one or two additional colours generally sufficing to produce a capital effect. Kund Larsen, one or two of whose pictures have been reproduced ih The Studio, has also designed some very pretty; covers. Both his letters and ornamentations are full of style and originality. In everything 'connected with the outside of books�to say nothing of his exquisite and marvellous illustrations, Professor Hans Tegner holds an unassailable position. A faultless style, often coupled with a fine sense of humour and satire, has set its hall-mark on all his work, and he is the author of innumerable delightful covers of various kinds. Prof. Tegner has also designed a number of the popular cloth and leather bindings, most of which have emanated from the old and well-known establishment of Immanuel Petersen. Immanuel Petersen has the credit of a fine binding of The Contention between the two famous Houses of Lancaster and York, designed by Fristrup, under his direction. Another, of a totally different stamp, is worthy of mention; it is a white parchment cover,, the whole of which is ornamented with, branches of laburnum, yellow flowers and green clover, and with title in gilt letters. J. L. Flyge has done much and good work as regards artistic and ornamental binding of books, DESIGNED BY G. HEILMANN EXECUTED BY I. PETERSEN: DESIGNED ANP EXECUTED BY ANKER KYSTER and he is a true lover of hit craft. Among other bind ir.gs, a prominent place should be given to that o; La Reliure Fran^aise, which he has himself designed. and the whole of the gild ing is done by hand. The cut of the leaves is beautifully done, in very faint relief, in gold and ornamentation in various colours. Last, but certainly not least, comes Anker Kyster. Possessed of originality and a considerable invention, and with a keen appreciation of the eternal fitness of things as regards the harmony which should exist between the book itself and its garb, he has, although a young man, already 76 � . ' J ' I f I ~* J ** i L: � _. - �� .Ut\&aaasiaDii�inJtidna: i DESIGNED BY FRISTRUP EXECUTED BY J. PETERSEN 77 Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish Bindings attracted much and flattering attention. Kyster prefers to strike out new lines of his pwn, and he has done this in more than one direction. First and foremost, mention should be made of his hand-made paper, used with great effect for the outside of the cover as well as for the inside. These papers are equally excellent in design and in colour, green, white, blue, violet, yellow, brown, � pink, etc., being blended with.the most charming effects. It goes without saying, that numerous excellent bindings have emanated from Kyster's workshop from designs by Bindesbol, Tegner, H. N. Hansen, Heilmann, and other artists, but Kyster himself is an able draughtsman and has devised many charming bindings. He is fond of simple designs, and of giving to the material what is due to it; he often uses lines with much effect, and for the back generally prefers a single decorative design of modest dimensions to the excessive application of gilt, in which so many binders indulge. The result is, that Kyster's leather bindings, as a rule, possess a simple and restful beauty. Georg Brochner. OOKBINDING IN SWEDEN, NORWAY, AND FINLAND. BY SUNNY FRYKHOLM. In the rich art-production of the northern countries of earlier date, conspicuously in the line of handicraft, the art of bookbinding appears very late in comparison with Europe generally, and Italy and France in particular; for bookbinding is an art wholly influenced by a superior culture which could not reach the far North till a later period. The influence of the highly refined Eastern bookbinding, which reached Europe as early-as the thirteenth century, by the aid of the Alders of Venice, and which soon spread to the cultured France of that time, did not reach the North- before the sixteenth- century, and then only in a very imperfect state; and the result of this late arrival of the different styles is that no strict lines can be drawn between them, such as. is the case in countries where one style developed after another in due chronological order. We can simply state that in the sixteenth'Century is first traceable in the North any bookbinding which is. worthy of being called a craft. DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY COUNTESS SPARRE 78 DESIGNED BY F. BOBERG EXECUTED BY G. HEDBERG DESIGNED BY A. UNDEGREN EXECUTED BY G, HEDBERG Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish Bindings What makes the history of Swedish bookbinding especially interesting is the fact that the craft in many families was inherited, so that even the widows kept up the business. In the case of one family, which still has members in the craft at Stockholm, the ancestor came over to Sweden from Germany about the middle of the seventeenth century. It is to be regretted that the history of'bookbinding in Sweden has been but scantily dealt with, though Dr. Eickhorn, a connoisseur who died before he had the opportunity to complete bis difficult task of collecting the records, has left us some very valuable information relative to this complicated study. Dr. H. Wieselgren is an interesting and conscientious guide to the collections of the Royal Library at Stockholm. . After the continual wars of the beginning of the eighteenth century, which entirely impoverished the country, the interest for art in general died out and was not revived until Queen Louisa Ulrika, the learned sister of Frederick the Great, once more brought universal European interests into her new country. One of her sons, King Gustavus III., carried on the good work, all the fine arts enjoying his Special favour; a great literature flourished in his time, and bookbinding became once more a prominent art. Thanks to this influence good work was still produced in the earlier part of the present century, though the craft had begun to decline. Favour- DESIGNED BY MISS GISBERG able mention,. must be made of Mr. F. Beck, the father of Bffc V. Beck, who has done much during later years to revive good workmanship. Although Mr. Beck always makes use of the designs of a very able lady artist, Miss Gisberg, his work still bears the stamp of a craft, and not of art, a fact which he much regrets himself, as he could certainly do better things if he could procure the necessary designs. His principal method consists in leather embossing, after designs in the style of the Renaissance, sometimes too profusely mixed up with coats-of-arms and emblems. His mosaic is much admired by his brother craftsmen, although the Austrian style he has adopted, which consists in applying the leather for the mosaics without stamping it with gold, is opposed to that of France; and some find fault with him also because he makes use of a brush for his gilding instead of burning the gold in with the tools. Mr. Beck's work shows that nothing is wanting in Sweden as regards skill in technique, but the Swedish artists must learn to take this craft more seriously, and the public must be taught to value artistic designs. In assisting the development of Swedish bookbinding, Mr. G. Hedberg, of Stockholm, has worked wonders during the last few years. Brought up among the tools, he had the opportunity to go to Paris and study there for four years, his great interest in bookbinding having aroused the attention of an old lover of books who helped him in various ways. After these years of conscientious study he returned to his own country, and firmly made up his mind to try to make the public understand the great possibilities for developing bookbinding into a fine art. With unfailing power over different methods, and a rare knowledge regarding historical styles, Mr. Hedberg is � a man in every way fitted to succeed in his purpose. He realised from the first that he needed good artistic assistance in order to obtain designs worthy to be worked out by EXECUTED BY V. BECK 80 o u a a Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish Bindings DESIGNED BY GISELA HENCKEL EXECUTED BY G. HEDBERG his exquisite methods, so he appealed to an artist whom we have mentioned before, viz., Mr. A. Lindegren, who is quite as rich in ideas as he is skilled as a worker. He has also had some very good designs by Mr. G. Wennerberg, and lately by Mr. F. Boberg. Mr. Hedberg.'s work became favourably known abroad in 1897, when his cover for King FiorusK designed by Mr. A. Lindegren, was one of those selected at the " International Exhibition of Bookbinding at Caxton Hill," for the illustrative catalogue, and lately he has had an offer from an English lover of books to make artistic bindings for some exquisite English literary works. Although it is generally considered in Sweden that Norway does not possess any artistic bookbinding, the Norwegians themselves would fain not allow Mr. Refsum and Miss Maria Hansen to be forgotten in any general treatise upon bookbinding in the North, while Mr. Gaudernak, the skilful artist working for Mr. Andersen, the gold-82 smith of Christiania, has enriched a few Bibles with some of his beautiful ornaments in the old Scandinavian Romanesque style. From Finland nothing else has appeared but the admirable designs by Countess Sparre, which are generally worked out by Mr. G. Hedberg. In conclusion, it may be' said that if any art is apt to express the culture of a country it is that of bookbinding. In all the other arts we can find clever men of different periods who create works of imagination which more or less appeal to the piifolic, generally by reason of the love of ornament, which is not necessarily an evidence of a cultured mind: but in bookbinding the connection between the work of art and the owner is more intimate and therefore more characteristic. Other products of artistic industry are not deemed out of place in the possession of anyone having plenty of money, but a library consisting of choice books provokes ridicule against any owner who does not possess the culture the books assume. r. E. ALBERT & CO Direct Photo - Etchers & Engravers, MUNICH, BAVARIA. SCHWABINGERLANDSTRASSE, No. SS. (please address exactly.) Zincotype Blocks AT LOWEST TERMS. �of 5o� Photogravure Plates Eightpence per Square Inch. MAXIMUM SIZE, 2 ft. 8 in. x 3 ft. 6 in. Square, Copper-Pldte Prints ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING TABLE. PRICE TEK PRINT. SIZE OF SIZE OF REMARKS. WHITE. � s. d. CHINA � s. d. �| 5 in. X 7 in. �7 in. X IO in. OOl O O H The Prices: 7 �... X IO in. 1 IO h . X 14 in. OO 2 O O 3 include good :c in. x 14 in. 14 in. X 19 in. 0 0 3i O O 4i Copper Print 14 in. X 19-111. 19 in. X 27 in. O 0 5i O O 7 and 18 in. X 25 in. 27 in. X 38 in. 0 O 10 O I 1 China Paper. 21 in. X 28 in. 31 in. X 41 in. O.I I O I 5 - SAMPLES ON APPLICATION.