Doves Bindery Ruskin John (1 results)
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Published by George Allen, Sunnyside, Orpington, 1898
Seller: Phillip J. Pirages Rare Books (ABAA), McMinnville, OR, U.S.A.Phillip J. Pirages Rare Books (ABAA)
Contact seller3-star sellerTenth Edition. 189 x 125 mm. (7 1/2 x 5"). xv, [5], 269, [1] pp. ATTRACTIVE WALNUT BROWN CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT BY THE DOVES BINDERY (stamp-signed and with "19 C-S 01" on rear turn-in), covers with gilt-rule border punctuated with gilt dots, raised bands, spine compartments with central Tudor rose, trefoil cornerpieces, gilt titl…ing, multiple gilt ruled turn-ins with three trefoils at corners, all edges gilt, and gauffered with two rows of tiny dots. With engraved calling card of American bibliophile and collector Julia Parker Wightman, inscribed with a gift presentation, laid in. For the binding: see Tidcombe, Appendix II, tools 2a and 6l-m. Spine sunned to a pleasing honey brown, but A LOVELY COPY, clean and fresh internally with no signs of use, in a lustrous binding. Previously owned by an eminent female bibliophile, this is a lovely example of the work of the leading Arts & Crafts movement bindery covering a copy of a curious and charming work by a man who helped inspire that movement. A distinguished critic of art and social issues, John Ruskin (1819-1900) had a considerable influence on the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts & Crafts movement, as well as on social welfare policy. The present book is intended to awaken in young ladies a strong interest in some area of inquiry, and to encourage an earnest and systematic approach to study. Although the title and much of the content relate to the field of crystallography, the work has the broader goal of inculcating precepts about the conduct of one's life. It is told in the form of dialogue involving imaginary females, ages nine to 20, the characters being based on real persons to whom Ruskin lectured at a country girls' school. Although the content here is important, the binding is likely to be a greater source of interest to us. A leading figure in the Arts & Crafts movement and the renaissance of the private press, T. J. Cobden-Sanderson (1840-1922) took up bookbinding in the 1880s at the suggestion of William Morris' wife, Jane. Between July of 1884 and March of 1893, he bound 167 books (according to Tidcombe's exhaustive catalogue). Through this small corpus of work, Cobden-Sanderson "rejuvenated English binding" with his theories of design "and set it on a new course of development." (Morgan Library Exhibition catalogue) When his health prevented him from binding with his own hands, he established the Doves Bindery (named for a nearby pub) and hired Charles McLeish from Riviere and Charles Wilkinson from Zaehnsdorf as finishers, Bessie Hooley (also from Riviere) as sewer, and Douglas Cockerell as apprentice. Although at that point he relinquished the handwork, he continued to do all the binding designs himself. A previous owner of this work was the remarkable Julia Parker Wightman (1909-1994), a prominent New York book collector, trustee of the Morgan Library, longstanding member and president of the Hroswitha Club (established in 1944 for women bibliophiles in light of their exclusion from men-only groups), and one of the first women elected to the Grolier Club. Wightman put together one of the nation's finest collections of miniature books (which is now housed at the Morgan), amassed an impressive collection of bindings, and owned a number of incunabula, herbals, and Medieval manuscripts. Taking a page right out of Ruskin's book (so to speak), Wightman took a special interest in fine binding and studied the craft with American bookbinder Edith Diehl. She later converted the top floor of her townhouse into a studio where she created bindings and cases for some of her own books.
