Embroidered Binding Notebook (2 results)

Condition: Very Good. Great shape! Has a publisher remainder mark. diary Used - Very Good.

Hardcover. Embroidered. Condition: Good. Beautiful crimson, or perhaps, scarlet, colored, embroidered binding with Folk Art-ish multi-colored floral and leaf ornamental, done with green, yellow, blue,red and gray thread, amid the even colored dark border ornamentation, The style comes off vaguely as a Folk Rococo, but it is a little more orderly or symmetrical than we associate with Rococo. N.d., circa 1860, perhaps earlier. The dating is based on a woman's sepia photo in an inset of a card leaf within. The Notebook measures 32 by 21.5 cm. With two brass clasps and four brass studs on both the front and back. The studs, or tacks, help protect the embroidery work which is raised from the plush velvet surface. The photo just referred to is on what serves as an inner cover for the notebook side of the portfolio. That leaf, excepting the photo cut-out, is covered in silk, and gilt decoration surrounds the photo. Immediately adjacent to the photo are rounded ruled lines, eye-shaped vertically. The outer decoration is quintessential Rococo Revival, more formal than the cover embroidery. We do not know the identity of the woman in the photo. She is somewhat plain in the face, but with a tiara, a necklace and a rather elaborate braided hairstyle, a woman of means. Beneath this card leaf are moire endpapers -- these are of a light card stock, with the decoration similar to tree rings. The notebook below contains eleven leaves of a thin purple note paper. The paper isn't entirely cut. Although the paper is basically unused, there is an impression of a few inked lines -- line not written directly onto the paper. Otherwise, the purple leaves are blank. To the left of the notebook and the photo are two sleeved compartments, or expandable folder chambers, to house letters and papers. The silk accordian sides of these compartments have some tearing by their folds and other wear. The binding, which is the primary source of interest in the object, has a moderate amount of wear and tear, including areas where the velvet is worn down, like a carpet that has lost much of its pile, and the spine has tears and fraying along the joints. Corners and edges have almost as much wear as the spine. The brass pieces are now mostly oxidized and darkened, but these will polish easily to their original brightness if one so wishes.