Royal English Bookbindings Part 4

In the library at Windsor are several bindings that were done for James II., but they are generally of a simple kind, bearing heraldic devices in the centre enclosed in rectangular panels of more or less elaboration. At the British Museum are some Jacobean bindings of a more ornamental kind.

One of these, a Cambridge Bible of 1674, is bound in crimson velvet, and has rich silk ties with bullion fringe (Fig. 20). It is heavily embroidered in gold, silver, and coloured silks, and bears in the centre the crowned initials "J. R." enclosed in a strap border intertwined with rose sprays and other floral designs. In each of the corners is a cherub's head with wings. There are two volumes, each measuring 18 12 inches.

Although, from the size of these books and the splendid colour, they are undoubtedly of imposing appearance, neither the design nor the workmanship can be considered of a high quality.

Belonging to the King's Library in the British Museum are two specimens, almost exactly alike except for their size, which may, for the present, be considered the finest that were done for James II. One of these is a Common Prayer, printed at Oxford in 1681. It is bound in red morocco, and has a black "cottage" fillet, broken at the angles and at each side. The crowned monogram "J. R.," with laurel spray, occurs in several places on the boards. The remaining s.p.a.ces are closely filled with small gold stamped work, similar to that used by Samuel Mearne. The book is an unusually fat one, and bears upon its broad front edges, under the gold, the most elaborate painting I have found in such a position. It has the full coat-of-arms of England, with supporters, crown, and crest, enclosed in an elaborate border of flowers, cherubs, and ribbons. This painting is in remarkably fine condition, but, like all this cla.s.s of work, the appearance of it depends very largely upon the manner in which it is displayed. The companion volume is a Bible of 1685. It is bound in an almost identical way; but the painting on the edge, although brighter, is not to be compared with it, either for size or excellence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21.--_Euclide. Oxford, 1705. Queen Anne._]

A note at the beginning, signed _G. Sarum_, says that this was the book which "lay before His Majesty above two years in the closet of his chappell," and afterwards it was the property of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and then of the Bishop himself.

At Windsor there is a small book bound for Mary of Modena in red morocco, with the royal coats of England and Este, crowned, and enclosed within a cordeliere des veuves, the rest, with the field, being occupied with small panels ornamented in the Mearne fashion.

At the British Museum is a copy of Walter's Poems, printed in 1668, that was dedicated by him to the d.u.c.h.ess of York, with an autograph poem. It is bound in black morocco, and bears the arms of England, with a label, impaled with those of Este, with supporters, and surmounted with a prince's coronet. Above and below the coat-of-arms are curves and arabesques in dotted gold work, picked out with silver, all enclosed in a rectangular border of a Mearne pattern.

The bindings of William and Mary are not remarkable in any way, except for their peculiar arrangement of the quarterings of the royal coat. A fine copy of _Veues des belles maisons de France_, bound in red morocco, has in the centre a crowned shield within a Garter, the bearings being--first, the coat of England; second, the coat of Scotland; third, the coat of France; fourth, the coat of Ireland; over all the scutcheon of Na.s.sau. In each corner is a handsome crowned monogram, "W. M." The volume is at Windsor. In the same library is a copy of the Statutes of the Order of the Garter, bound in dark blue morocco, and bearing in the centre, within a Mearne border, the royal coat-of-arms, crowned, with Garter. On the dexter side is the Cross of St. George; on the sinister side, the coat of England with the quarterings in their proper order.

In the British Museum are other bindings of William and Mary, but they are also of small importance from a decorative point of view. They often bear the crowned initials "W. R." enclosed in laurel sprays, and are ornamented with lines and small sprays in gold, mostly after the Mearne fashion. A copy of the _Memoirs of the Earl of Castlehaven_, London, 1681, has the coat arranged in the following curious manner: first, England; second, Scotland; third, Ireland; fourth, France, with scutcheon of Na.s.sau over all. It almost seemed as if William considered that the coat of France had been borne long enough by English sovereigns, and it occupied the place of honour until he deposed it from that proud position; but I believe it was only upon his bookbindings that he took these liberties with the fleurs-de-lis.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 22.--_aelfric. An English-Saxon Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory. London, 1709. Queen Anne._]

The finest of Queen Anne's bindings at Windsor is a copy of Flamsteed, _Historia Coelestis_, 1712. It is bound in red morocco, and has in the centre the full arms of England with supporters. The arms are quartered as follows: first and fourth, England and Scotland impaled; second, France; and third, Ireland; all within mitred panels, ornamented with small arabesques and floral sprays at the angles and sides. In the same library is also a binding with the monogram of William, Duke of Gloucester, son of Queen Anne, with a prince's coronet enclosed in a triple-bordered panel, with sprays and acorns.

In the British Museum the richest binding done for Queen Anne is on a copy of the English _Euclide_, Oxford, 1705 (Fig. 21). It is a large book, and the centre is occupied by a cottage design divided into four panels, each of which is thickly filled with small gold stamped work. At the upper and lower edges of the boards are the words "ANNA D. G.," under a royal crown, upheld by two cherubs; above which is a scroll bearing the words "VIVAT REGINA." The outer corners and the sides are filled with scale ornaments and floral sprays of a branching character.

Another volume bound for Queen Anne, in the British Museum, is _An English-Saxon Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory_, by aelfric, Archbishop of Canterbury, London, 1709 (Fig. 22). It is covered in red morocco, and stamped in gold with a cottage design, and bears the crowned monogram "A. R.," with laurel sprays and other small stamps scattered about. The designs on all these volumes of the later Stuart sovereigns have no very distinctive character, and, except where they are frank imitations of Mearne's work, they show little inventive power.

On the legislative union of England and Scotland in 1706, the first and fourth quarters of the royal coat bore the coats of England and Scotland impaled, the second quarter the coat of France, and the third that of Ireland. It is important to remember this change, as the first quarter continued to be used in the same way on Queen Anne's books and on those of her successors until 1801.

CHAPTER IV

GEORGE I.--GEORGE II.--GEORGE III.--GEORGE IV.--WILLIAM IV.

On the succession to the English crown pa.s.sing to the Hanoverian line, another important change was made in the royal coat of England. George I.

subst.i.tuted for the fourth quarter, which had been hitherto a repet.i.tion of the first, the arms of his family, Brunswick, impaling Luneburg, and in the base point the coat of Saxony, over all an escutcheon, charged with the crown of Charlemagne, as a badge of the office of High Treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire. George II. bore the same coat as did George III. up to 1801, when, on the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland, the coat was officially altered to first and fourth England; second, Scotland; third, Ireland, with over all an escutcheon, bearing the arms of the royal dominions in Germany, ensigned with the electoral bonnet, which was again changed to the Hanoverian royal crown when Hanover was elevated to the rank of a kingdom in 1816. This last coat was used by George IV. and William IV., and, without the Hanoverian escutcheon, it is the present royal coat of England.

The bindings of George I. and George II. are generally much alike. There are good specimens of each at Windsor. They are generally in red morocco, with either coats-of-arms in the centre or monograms. At Windsor there is one bound in vellum, it is a ma.n.u.script _Report on States of Traytors_, 1717, and bears the full royal coat in the centre, enclosed in rectangular mitred borders, with delicate gold stamped work at the sides. In the British Museum is a finely stamped _Account of Conference concerning the Succession to the Crown_, 1719, very delicately and tastefully ornamented, having the coat-of-arms in the centre, with crowned initials at the corners, and delicate gold work of floral sprays and curves borrowed from Le Gascon, a great French binder.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 23.--_Account of what pa.s.sed in a Conference concerning the Succession to the Crown, MS. George I._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 24.--_Le Nouveau Testament. Amsterdam, 1718. George II._]

There are several of George II. bindings at Windsor, made for him when he was Prince of Wales. These generally bear the Prince of Wales' feathers as a chief motive, and they often have broad borders, much of the ornamentation of which contains stamps of crowns, sceptres, and birds, which are attributed to Eliot and Chapman. There are other inlaid bindings made for George II. which often have doublures. Some of these are figured in Mr. Holmes's _Bookbindings at Windsor_. Bindings of a similar kind that were made for Frederick Prince of Wales, and for his wife, the Princess Augusta, are also preserved at Windsor. These have always heraldic centres, and generally the broad Eliot and Chapman outer borders.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 25.--_Chandler. A Vindication of the Defence of Christianity. London, 1728. George II._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 26.--_Common Prayer. Cambridge, 1760. Queen Charlotte._]

For George III., both when Prince of Wales and King, books were bound with coloured inlays by Andreas Lande. There are specimens of his work both in the British Museum and at Windsor, they are not in particularly good taste. During the reign of George III. a remarkable English bookbinder worked in London. This was Roger Payne; and, although he himself does not seem to have bound any royal books, he strongly influenced many who did, more particularly Kalthoeber, who bound many of the books in the King's Library at the British Museum. Although these bindings are by no means so good as their originals, they are a very great advance upon their immediate predecessors; and a delicately worked and effective instance covers a copy of the Gutenburg Bible now at the British Museum.

Another English binder of note, James Edwards of Halifax, also flourished in the reign of George III. This binder has not, I think, received sufficient appreciation, as he discovered an entirely new way of treating vellum by which it was rendered transparent. He painted designs on the under side of the vellum and bound his books with it, the result being that, if the vellum is clean on the outside, the protected painting underneath it is as fresh as when it was first done. A fine example of this curious work is on a copy of a Prayer Book, printed at Cambridge, 1760, which belonged to Charlotte of Mecklenburg, queen of George III.

(Fig. 26). Her arms, in proper heraldic colours, are in the centre of the upper cover, enclosed by a blue and gold border of Etruscan design. At the lower edge is a miniature of a ruin in monotone, and at each side of the coat and above it are ornamental scrolls, with conventional flowers, birds, animals, and figures. On the lower cover is a central oval, with an allegorical figure in monotone, enclosed in a similar border to that on the upper cover, at each side of which are flowering trees in urns, birds, etc., and in each panel of the back is also a decorative design.

Altogether this is the prettiest royal binding done at this period. It has the crowned initials "C. R." painted in silver inside the upper cover, and on the front edge, in an oval, is a painting of the Resurrection under the gold. Between this and the edges, painted for James II., there were no books adorned in this way for royal owners.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 27.--_Portfolio containing the Royal Letter concerning the King's Library. George IV._]

The bindings done for George IV., at Windsor, are generally bound in red morocco, with heraldic centres and broad borders, sometimes inlaid with coloured leathers. The borders are sometimes like those used by Eliot and Chapman, and sometimes conventional patterns. A good example in the British Museum is on the cover of the letter written to Lord Liverpool by the king in 1823, concerning the gift of his father's library to the nation. A copy of the Book of Common Prayer, which belonged to William IV., and is now at Windsor, is bound in blue morocco. It bears in the centre the star of the Order of the Garter, within a crowned Garter, dependent from which is an anchor, and at the sides "G. R. III." There are anchors in the corners, and a decorative outer border. The generality of the books belonging to him have the usual heraldic centres, within borders designed in more or less good taste. The king presented to the British Museum, and signed with his own name, an _Inventory of the Crown Plate_, 1832. It is bound by William Clark, and bears in the centre the full royal coat-of-arms, and has a handsome rectangular border of triple gold lines, broken at each side by bold arabesque ornaments.

EPILOGUE

In the foregoing detailed descriptions I have included only the work of English binders. There are, however, many books existing that have been bound for English royal personages abroad. Instances of these occur notably for Henry VIII., Elizabeth, James I., Henrietta Maria, Henrietta Anna, Charles II., the Chevalier St. George, and Cardinal York. It will be noticed that generally the ornamentation of English royal books is heraldic, and that crowned initials are constantly used from the time of Henry VIII. to William IV. To understand the royal coat-of-arms of England it is necessary, at all events, to note the larger rearrangements of the various quarterings, which on the Tudor bindings were simply France and England, quarterly. The two great changes took place on the accession of the Stuart line, when the coats of Scotland and England were introduced; and on the accession of the Hanoverian line, when the family coat of the Guelphs was introduced. There are several minor alterations and additions, but these I have mentioned as they have occurred, and the only other important change to remember is concerning the supporters. From the time of Henry VII. until 1528 these were a dragon and a greyhound, and from that time until Elizabeth they were a lion and a dragon. Since the time of James I. they have been a lion and unicorn. Badges are constantly found on Tudor and early Stuart bindings. They are the well-known ones of Tudor origin--the double rose, portcullis, pomegranate, fleur-de-lis, and falcon. The fleur-de-lis remains longest of these. The Prince of Wales'

feathers is commonly found on books from the time of Edward VI.

The styles of bindings used by these great royal houses have also characteristics common to each of them. The bindings of the Tudor period are most diversified in styles, and the majority of the leather books are either bound by Thomas Berthelet, royal binder to Henry VIII., and his successors, or in his style. Under Elizabeth, the Italian fashion of double boards, the upper of which is pierced, was used for very choice work. Berthelet took his inspiration originally from Italian models, but shortly developed a style of his own. Vellum was much used in connection with gold stamped work, the first use of which in England is credited to this binder.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Order of the Coronation of George III. and Queen Charlotte.

London, 1761. George III.]

The bindings of the early Stuart period may be considered remarkable for the extensive use of what are called semees, successive and symmetrical impressions from small stamps powdered over the sides of the book; and the stamped velvet work done at Little Gidding is one of the glories of the reign of Charles I.

Samuel Mearne was royal binder to Charles II., and many of his bindings are of great beauty. His influence on English bookbinding remained for a very long time, weakening gradually, until superseded by the newer style introduced by Roger Payne.

In the time of George III. there was some improvement in royal bindings due to the imitators of Roger Payne, another binder, whose influence was strongly felt after his death. Eliot and Chapman, during the eighteenth century, introduced the use of broad borders with small stamps, among which are frequently found crowns and sceptres; and many of these are found on royal bindings.

Names of many royal binders, from early times, are preserved in various records, but there is considerable uncertainty about the work of most of them; and, although many lists exist of books bound for certain kings by certain workmen, very few of them have been identified. From the constant appearance of personal badges of different kinds, it may be considered likely that, especially among the earlier sovereigns, considerable personal interest has been taken in the covering of their books. We even find the livery colours of the Tudors--green and white--duly used on some of their bindings; and the prevalence of red and blue, the livery colours of the Hanoverian line, is common enough among the Georgian bindings.

LIST OF MOST IMPORTANT WORKS CONSULTED

Almack. A Bibliography of the King's Book. London, 1896.

Burlington Fine Arts Club. Catalogue of Bookbindings. 1891.

Edwards. Lives of the Founders of the British Museum. London, 1870.

Fletcher. English Bookbindings in the British Museum. London, 1895.

Holmes. Specimens of Bookbinding selected from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. London, 1893.