Mosaic Binding (4 results)

No. 229 of 250 copies. 12mo (6 x 4-1/2 inches). Title-page woodblock by T. Sturge Moore, engraved initials. xiv, 257, [1] pp., text in black and red. Fine mosaic binding, covers and four spine panels filled by a complex pattern of curved morocco inlays in four colors, t.e.g., doublures with gilt-ruled inlaid borders, silk endleaves, by Curtis Walters (signed on rear turn-in); fine in a custom half morocco chemise and morocco-tipped slipcase (some old tape-strengthening to slipcase). A stunning, perfectly preserved mosaic binding by the American binder Curtis Walters, who specialized in such intricate and colorful mosaic bindings executed with an astonishing level of precision. This is one of a group of such bindings consigned by Walters to Parke Bernet and sold there, 10 December 1957, lots 13-35 (this lot 27).From the Park Bernet catalogue: "Mr. Walters was influenced to take up bookbinding around 1900 by the late George D. Smith, eminent bookseller. Later he studied with Matthews, the Club Bindery and Stikeman. He conceived his ideas about mosaic bindings as early as 1904, but between 1907 and 1928 he remained inactive. He has invented and brought to perfection a new technique whereby the most intricate inlaid designs can be achieved by a few simple tools, without the use of dies or punches; gilt dots, circlets and fillets are generally applied with restraint. Mr. Walters' work has received wide recognition. Some of his early bindings are included in the Henry W. Poor collection, and almost all of those offered for sale here have been exhibited in Paris (1930), New York (Columbia University, 1935), Hamburg (Kunstgewerbeschule, 1933-36) and Berlin (1936)." Lawrence Thompson heaps further praise on Walters, from "Hand Bookbinding in the United States Since the Civil War": "The infinite variety of design permitted by mosaic work is combined with Walters' marvelous delicacy in color schemes, finely conceived geometric patterns, and tasteful use of gold leaf to produce books that no Americans save perhaps the artists of the Club Bindery could have matched. The utter simplicity of Walters' methods (he used but four tools) belies his perseverance and devotion to his art. Only infinite patience and consummate skill could have produced Walters' bindings."Walter's bindings appear infrequently on the market this is a choice example of his artistry.

2 parts in one, 12mo (binding 137 x 85 mm). [16], 284, [4], 252, [12] pages. Woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initial. Ruled in red throughout. At the end is a 4-page catalogue of books sold by Jacques Estienne. (Bifolium g6-7 in part 2 bound in reverse order.) Mosaic binding of black morocco, probably ca. 1725-1735, covers with an all-over design of repeated concave-cornered lozenges of onlaid light brown morocco, within a blind-tooled lattice design of double fillets and tiny six-petalled blossoms, spine in six compartments, five similarly decorated, each with one onlaid lozenge, second compartment with onlaid silver-tooled brown morocco lettering-piece, doublures of dark brown morocco with silver-tooled arabesque roll border, edges gilt over marbling (rehinged, upper joint chipping); modern suede-lined morocco folding box. Provenance: Paul-Louis Weiller (1893-1993), bookplate, his sale Paris, 30 Nov 1998, lot 32; modern booklabel, ?non nove sed nova," initials CL.*** A mosaic ?tile? or tessellated binding, attributable to Antoine-Michel Padeloup, on a popular Jansenist devotional text. This unusual binding reverses the usual color scheme of the small corpus of similar known bindings, providing a sober yet striking cover for the book. ?Around 1707 mosaic work . began to be used in binding as it did in furniture and became the leading element in the design, These designs [were] now provided by onlay (as opposed to the sixteenth-century use of paint and wax). Such mosaic work was either in a new form of the all-over semis (now incorporating a framed structure so that it often resembled a tessellated pavement and was sometimes termed à répétition), or with free-hand floral or other asymmetric realistic work? (Barber, Rothschild Waddesdon Manor catalogue, p. 201). Tile-patterned mosaic bindings were usually used on small format books. Their invention is credited to the binder Antoine-Michel Padeloup, or Padeloup le jeune (1685-1758), who bound for the entourage of the Regent Philippe II d?Orléans (d. 1723). The height of the fashion for this style was probably the late 1720s and 1730s (Barber, p. 226). This style of decoration had the advantage of requiring little materiel. While ?very labour-intensive, [the tile pattern style] requires only a few tools, all being common lines and curves (`gouges?) and hardly any `figure,? that is, expensive, engraved tools. It would, as such, have suited under-capitalised, younger binders. [But such designs] ?clearly required careful planning and, doubtless, the preparation of a scaled plan based on both the exact size of the book and on the tools to be used? (loc. cit). The present binding contains only one tool on the outer covers, the small fleuron (Waddesdon catalogue, p. 384, fig. 11), and one roll, which was also apparently used only on doublures (Waddesdon catalogue I, p. 436, RBT 8). Other tessellated mosaic bindings in this style, all attributed to Padeloup, are known: five, of which three using the same tools, are described and illustrated in the Waddesdon catalogue; another was reproduced by Michon and in the Esmérian catalogue. Those bindings use black or dark mororcco lozenges (gold-tooled) on a citron or light brown morocco ground, with gold-tooled lattice-work, creating a luminous effect. In contrast to those bindings, here Padeloup reversed the color scheme: a black ground with restrained silver and blind tooling serves as background for the tile design of unadorned brown morocco lozenges. While visually striking, the effect, enhanced by the silver-bordered doublures, is one of restraint, no doubt intentional, to reflect the book?s Jansenist content. Barbier Anonymes IV: 814. Giles Barber, The James A. de Rothschild Bequest at Waddesdon Manor, The National Trust: Printed Books and Bookbindings, 2 vols. (2013); see nos. 90, 91, 92, 93 and 572. Cf. Louis Michon, Les reliures mosaïquées du XVIIIe siècle, no. 89 = Bibliothèque Raphaël Esmérian II, no. 89.

First Trade Edition. 228 x 160 mm. (9 x 6 1/4"). 8 p.l., 316 pp., [1] leaf. SPECTACULAR MOSAIC MOROCCO BY CURTIS WALTERS (signed in gilt on rear turn-in), covers with animated repeating ogival pattern inlaid in several hues of morocco (black, navy blue, light blue, light brown and orange), separated into three panels by thin strips of red morocco and gilt rules, THE COVERS WITH APPROXIMATELY 662 INLAYS IN TOTAL, raised bands, spines compartments ruled in gilt and inlaid with a similar design, gilt titling, NAVY BLUE MOROCCO DOUBLURES bordered with strips of eggplant and red morocco and four gilt rules, navy blue watered silk endleaves, top edge gilt, others trimmed on the rough. Housed in a marbled paper chemise with red morocco back and matching (slightly worn) slipcase. With color frontispiece and printed tissue guard, 48 black & white plates, one double-page specimen reproduction, and numerous in-text illustrations and specimen page reproductions. With tipped-in "Compliments of the Author" leaf SIGNED by Orcutt. Clizbee, "Curtis Walters, American Binder" in "The American Book Collector" (August, September 1932), pp. 124-34 (this binding pictured in the second plate). Copy included with this item. Very slight offsetting from plates and the odd trivial imperfection internally, otherwise a fine copy IN AN IMMACULATE BINDING. This splendid mosaic binding is a tour-de-force of design and craftsmanship from an underappreciated American binder who specialized in this technique. The foreword to the 10 December 1957 sale catalogue of his bindings at Parke Bernet says that they "constitute a splendid group of American mosaic bindings such as have never been offered for sale before. . . . The description of bindings is always a difficult matter; it becomes practically impossible when one is faced by the stunning variety of complex patterns of colored mosaic inlays which Mr. Walters has assembled with infinite patience, extraordinary skill and sophisticated taste . . . He has invented and brought to perfection a new technique whereby the most intricate inlaid designs can be achieved by a few simple tools, without the use of dies or punches; gilt dots, circlets and fillets are generally applied with restraint. . . . It need hardly be added that all of Mr. Walters' bindings are made of the very finest leathers available, and that their workmanship reveals consummate craftsman[ship] down to the smallest detail." The present item was lot #25 in that sale. Walters became interested in bookbinding around 1900, and studied with such prestigious workshops as William Matthews, the Club Bindery, and Henry Stikeman. In "Hand Bookbinding in the United States Since the Civil War," Thompson tell us of Walters' work: "The infinite variety of design permitted by mosaic work is combined with Walters' marvelous delicacy in color schemes, finely conceived geometric patterns, and tasteful use of gold leaf to produce books that no Americans save perhaps the artists of the Club Bindery could have matched. The utter simplicity of Walters' methods (he used but four tools) belies his perseverance and devotion to his art. Only infinite patience and consummate skill could have produced Walters' bindings." The article by Azalea Clizbee in the accompanying copy of "The American Book Collector" describes Walters' technique for creating his mosaic bindings using only the simplest tools, with plates depicting eight of his bindings, including this one. Although very secondary here, the text is, appropriately, a celebration of book arts--printing, binding, and illustration--by William Dana Orcutt (1870-1953), typographer, printer, and book designer. After graduating from Harvard in 1892, he went to work for the University Press there. He created several typefaces, most notably "Humanistic," based on the humanist hand of 15th century scribe Antonio Sinibaldi. With Daniel Updike and Bruce Rogers, he established the Boston Society of Printers in 1905. He was the author of several works on printing, typography, and the making of beautiful books.

Very rare late-17th-century Antwerp edition of the New Testament edited by Henricus van den Leemputte (1588-1657) in a magnificent 18th-century mosaic binding. The binding is made by or in the style of the French (Parisian) binders Le Monnier. "The delicate construction, finesse of tooling and delineation, and the fantasy of these bindings render them veritable jewels." (see The History of bookbinding 525-1950 A.D., no. 456).Van den Leemputte was a highly educated cleric from a noble family in the Southern Netherlands. He held high offices within the diocese (bishopric) of 's Hertogenbosch. Aside from the present version of the New Testament (first published in 1622), he wrote several treatises on the Holy Sacraments (published 1624) and edited two works (one manual for explaining the Holy Scripture and one defence of the Catholic church against the Reformed church).From the library of Carlo de Poortere (1917-2002), a director of the family tapestry business and a Belgian bibliophile with a large collection of 17th- and 18th-century book bindings and illustrated books from the 16th-20th centuries. It had previous been part of the collection of English Baptist minister and book collector Andrew Gifford (1700-1784). The "of the Museum" below his name in the engraved bookplate seems to refer to his position as assistant keeper of books and manuscript at the British Museum from 1757 until his death. Curiously, he bequeathed his collection of books, manuscripts, pictures, and other curiosities, not to the British Museum, but to the Bristol Baptist College. In the 1970s, the Trustees of this college decided to sell all copies of the Gifford collection to pay for renovations to the chapel.With the gold-tooled red morocco bookplate of Carlo de Poortere on the verso of the blank fly leaf and a near contemporary engraved paper bookplate on the verso of the title-page, possibly of Andrew Gifford (1700-1784). The binding shows minor signs of wear at the outer corners of the boards and spine, otherwise it is in fine condition. The bottom outer corner of the first blank flyleaf and the title-page have been restored, a slight water stain in the bottom margin of the first half of the work, some occasional slight browning. Quire 2*4 has been mis-bound at the end of the work in quire 3H4, but the collation is complete. Otherwise in very good condition. A very rare late 17th-century edition of the New Testament in an exquisite 18th-century mosaic binding.l STCV 12918655 (1 copy); USTC 1535523 (1 copy, same as STCV); WorldCat 66131050 (4 copies, including the STCV copy); cf. The history of bookbinding 525-1950 A.D. An exhibition held at the Baltimore Museum of Art November 12, 1957 to January 12, 1958, no. 456 (plate XC). Exquisite 18th-century gold-tooled multi-colour morocco mosaic binding. The basis of the binding is red morocco, the boards show a large flower executed in gold-tooled white, green, yellow, and black morocco onlays, with small brown morocco leaf shaped corner pieces within a cusped and scalloped gold-tooled double fillet frame. The outer frame is a gold-tooled black morocco onlay with detailed floral and leaf shaped gold-tooled brown and green morocco onlays. The binding is sewn on 5 supports, with corresponding raised bands on the spine. The six compartments are beautifully decorated with gold-tooled yellow (1st, 4th, and 6th compartment), black (2nd and 3rd), and green (5th) morocco onlays with the title lettered in gold on the black morocco of the 2nd and 4rd compartments, the other compartments are show detailed gold-tooling and a small green or red morocco small circular onlay. Further with gold-tooling on the raised bands, the head and foot of the spine, the board edges, and the turn-ins. Gilt edges and green silk covered end papers. With 39 detailed woodcut illustrations in the text, and woodcut decorated initials and small printed manicules. The text is set in a Gothic letter, with incidental use of Roman type. Pages: [1], [1 blank], [14], 837, [27] pp.