INDUSTRIES 

 BOOKBINDING 



The art of binding flourished in England 

 from a very early period, and in the I2th 

 century J English binders were in advance 

 of all foreign workers in this craft. Several 

 distinct schools of binding of this period may 

 be traced, by the beautiful examples of their 

 work which have survived, to certain impor- 

 tant towns and religious houses ; of chief 

 interest among these were the schools of 

 London, Durham, and Winchester. The 

 decoration of the book covers consisted of very 

 small stamps, delicately cut and arranged in 

 formal patterns of infinite variety. The 

 design frequently consists of a parallelogram, 

 the lines of which are formed by dies, the 

 centre being rilled with circles and segments 

 of circles, these being characteristic of English 

 work. The 131)1 and I4th centuries do not 

 mark any distinct progress in English binding, 

 and very few examples of that period have 

 survived, but the excessive use of dies appears 

 to have decreased. 



There is an early example of the panel 

 stamp on a loose binding in the library of 

 Westminster Abbey. The covers are tooled 

 at their edges with small tools, and in the 

 centre is a twice-repeated stamp with the arms 

 presumably of Edward IV. 2 



With the invention of printing, binding be- 

 came much more in request. The binding 

 of the earliest English printed books differed 

 in a very marked way from that of the manu- 

 scripts which they gradually superseded. The 

 latter had reached a point of great excellence 

 in 1476-7, when Caxton produced his first 

 book printed at Westminster, and their bind- 

 ings were correspondingly rich, ornamented 

 with enamels, carved ivory, and other materials 

 of the most costly kind. But printed books 

 had at first a very sober covering of plain 

 leather, calf or deerskin, and sometimes of 

 parchment. The covers were wooden boards 

 and the backs were of leather, which was also 

 drawn wholly or partly over the wooden 

 covers, the latter being usually fitted with 

 clasps. A short title is often found written 

 on the fore-edge, the book being placed on the 

 shelf with the fore-edge displayed to view. 

 The bindings of books printed by Caxton, and 

 perhaps bound in his workshop, have a simple 



1 W. H. J. Weale, ' Lectures on Engl. Book- 

 binding in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry 

 VIII,' Journ. Soc. of Arts, 26 Feb. 1889. 



* Sarah T. Prideaux, Hut. Sketch of Bookbinding 

 (1893), 16. 



decoration composed of straight lines variously 

 arranged, and sometimes inclosing impressions 

 of small stamps made up into a simple pattern. 

 Caxton 's successors produced a more ambitious 

 style of decoration by the use of large heraldic 

 stamps. 



After his death in 1491 these stamps were 

 used by Wynkyn de Worde until the begin- 

 ning of the 1 6th century ; some of them were 

 used even later by the stationer Henry Jacobi. 

 Wynkyn de Worde also used a small stamp of 

 the Royal Arms. This style was distinctly 

 English, for though heraldic decoration was 

 employed by contemporary foreign binders, 

 the designs were produced in quite a different 

 way, either in cut or tooled leather. Where 

 the printer was his own binder his device or 

 initials are often found on the binding as well 

 as on the printed page of the book. 



The Royal coat-of-arms used by the early 

 London printers for their bindings was the 

 same during the reigns of Henry VII and 

 Henry VIII, except for a difference in the 

 supporters. The dragon and greyhound borne 

 by both sovereigns were changed in 1528 by 

 Henry VIII, who adopted the lion for his 

 dexter and the dragon for his sinister sup- 

 porter, leaving out the greyhound. The 

 Tudor rose which so frequently occurs on 

 these early bindings was the proudest emblem 

 of the House of Tudor, and used by all its 

 sovereigns. It was adopted by Henry VII 

 on his marriage with Elizabeth of York, and 

 consisted of a double rose with petals of red 

 and white, signifying the union of the houses 

 of York and Lancaster, whose conflicts had 

 desolated England for so many years. Asso- 

 ciated with the Royal coat-of-arms the cross 

 of St. George and the arms of the City of 

 London are frequently found upon the same 

 stamp. The City arms indicates that the 

 binder was a citizen, and when this was not 

 the case the citizen shield was replaced by 

 some other device. The panel of the Royal 

 arms was used by many English binders who 

 are only known by their initials ; a certain 

 ' G. G.' discarded the more usual supporters 

 and replaced them by two angels. 



Wynkyn de Worde employed latterly bind- 

 ers from the Low Countries resident in 

 England ; among them was J. Gaver, who 

 was one of the executors to his will, and was 

 probably connected with the large family of 

 Gavere, binders in the Low Countries. 



Most of the early printers bound their own 

 books. Richard Pynson, Caxton's pupil, pro- 



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