. Historic bindings in the Bodleian Library, Oxford : with reproductions of twenty-four of the finest bindings. had one son—Sir Henry, the Eton Provost. Thomas Wottons admiration forthe triumphs of the great French collectors bookbindings led him to emulate thebeauty of the continental models. So successful was he in his hobby that he earnedthe name of The English Grolier. The founder of the French school ofornamental binding was born at Lyons in 1479, and died in Paris on the 22nd ofOctober, 1565. Sir Thomas Wottons period lies somewhere between 1521 and1589: his bookbindings are even more ra
. Historic bindings in the Bodleian Library, Oxford : with reproductions of twenty-four of the finest bindings. had one son—Sir Henry, the Eton Provost. Thomas Wottons admiration forthe triumphs of the great French collectors bookbindings led him to emulate thebeauty of the continental models. So successful was he in his hobby that he earnedthe name of The English Grolier. The founder of the French school ofornamental binding was born at Lyons in 1479, and died in Paris on the 22nd ofOctober, 1565. Sir Thomas Wottons period lies somewhere between 1521 and1589: his bookbindings are even more rare than those of his continentalcontemporary. A binding with the Wotton arms, ornamented in a similarmanner to the example before us, is given in Bernard Ouaritchs Facsimiles ofBookbindings. The British Museum Library does not contain an example ofThomas Wottons armorial binding, but a fine specimen bearing hisname is exhibited in one of the glass cases in the Kings Library. PLATE XL GROLIERESQUE BINDING: ENGLISH (?) Sir Thomas Wottons Bookbinding (?)Douce Scraps, (c. 1550.) Measurement: 11^ in. x 7% his example is much larger than the previousbinding, although for the purpose of uniformitythe plate has been reduced in the process ofphotography. The binding has neither inscriptionnor arms whereby it may be identified as theproperty of a particular collector, but it isevident that whoever designed the last examplefor Thomas Wotton, also designed this;material, technique, and treatment are the same in both, though thedesigns differ. If the binding we are now considering be the workof an English bookbinder, it is a production creditable to Englishart, and certainly it will bear comparison with some of the mostcelebrated examples of foreign bookbinding of the same period. Itmay be useful to set down the chief distinguishing features of thefew examples of Wottons bookbindings which I have seen. 1 st. The material is a soft light brown leather having a finesatin-like surface.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidhi, booksubjectbookbinding
