Remarkable Books - Fine Bindings

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In this binding, Alvah Cook combines his love of coloured leather onlays in a classic 17th century French-style fanfare binding to good effect.
Shakespeare in colour
Shakespeare, William, The poems of William Shakespeare, London : William Pickering, 1825. [Acc. R68/8327, Cook Bequest.]
Alvah Cook experimented with various doublures through his collection, but this is the only one depicting a building. The book is a history of Windsor Castle and Cook created two different images of the castle for the front and back doublures, this is from the back cover.
My home is my castle
Pyne, W. H., The history of the royal palace of Windsor Castle, [London : printed for A. Dry, 1819]. [Acc. R68/8353, Cook Bequest.]
The outside of the boards of this book are gilded and decorated, but it is the inside that catches the attention with hand-painted floral silk velvet doublures. The fore-edge is painted with a recognisable image of Edinburgh Castle from the Grassmarket, making this copy very special.
Hidden treasures inside the covers
Thomson, James, The seasons, new ed, London : printed by T. Bensley for F. J. Du Roveray, 1802. [Acc. 51:878, Anonymous donation.]
Alvah Cook usually left the fore-edges of his books plain, gilded or marbelled. This is the only example where he has gilded, gauffered and painted the pages (cut into the pages to create a 3D effect).
A cut above the rest
Milton, John, The poetical works of John Milton : vol.1, containing Paradise Lost, London : 1731 [Acc. R68/8334, Cook Bequest.]
Cedric Chivers created the vellucent technique for bookbindings, whereby a very thin layer of vellum was laid over a colourful image. He used it to great effect in different ways from binding entire books using this technique, to inserting a panel illustration as part of the binding of a book.
Specialist illustrated bookbinding
La Tour-Landy, Geoffrey de, The knyght of the towere ..., London: George Newnes, 1902. [43:874, Chivers Bequest] & The story of the Bath Pageant ..., Bath : Lewis Bros, 1909. Presented to Frank Lascelles Esq. [61:483, donated by Laurence & Dorothy Eyres]
Sir Hector Duff, former Colonial Secretary of Nyasaland [Malawi] was keen on heraldry and fine bindings. Here, he has combined his passions with a Bayntun (Riviere) binding and a memento mori doublure of one of his mother's dresses.
Heraldry meets binding
Duff, Hector Livingstone, Sir, Emblazoned arms, [1947-1948]. [Acc.65:680, Sir Hector Duff Bequest]
A classic Cedric Chivers binding of burnished morocco leather with a vellucent insert in the front board with a painting of a butterfly, executed by Sir Hector Duff, surrounded by a ring of mother of pearl.
Flight of fancy
Duff, Hector Livingstone, Sir, African small chop, London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1932. [Acc. 24488, Sir Hector Duff Bequest.]
Amateur binder Alvah Cook tried several versions of some binding styles, these ones are based on a 17th century Scottish wheel design. By changing tools around, different effects could be obtained within the same style.
Repeated versions of the same design
Thomson, J., The seasons, London : William Tegg & Co, 1851. [R68/8329] & Mackenzie, G., Treatise on witchcraft… , Paisley : J. Neilson, 1809. [R68/8108] & The poetical works of Robert Burns..., London : W. Lewis & Co., 1816 [R68/8362] [Cook Bequest]

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