About this Item
First edition. Large thick quarto. Sumptuously and expertly bound by Eleanor van Sweringen, noted bookbinder who worked in New York City during the first half of the 20th century. She also schooled other noted bookbinders such as Christine Hamilton and was a member of the prestigious Guild of Book Workers, founded in 1906 to "establish and maintain a feeling of kinship and mutual interest among workers in the several hand book crafts. Bound in full chocolate brown crushed morocco with impressed pictorial design of schooner and rectilinear large framing motifs in dark brown on both covers, spine with bold gouged raised bands and similar darker brown border motifs. Large inch-wide dentelles carrying the same theme of interlocking darker brown framing borders, wonderful copper flecked doublures and free endsheets. Signed in impressed darker brown at rear dentelle, "Eleanore Van Sweringen, 1929. Amazingly, housed in the original half morocco folders made by the binder, with the same marbled copper card paper on covers. Bindings by Van Sweringen are vanishingly scarce, few if any find the marketplace, though she operated as a master bookbinder for many years and was active in the Guild of Book Workers, joining in 1908, and also as an independent craftswoman. Van Sweringen learned her craft principally with F. Boon, Helen Haskell Noyes and A Dehertagh of New York. She was one of the first members of the Guild to actively teach bookbinding, and her pupils include Ruth S. Bergen, Gertrude Dodsworth, Dorothy Moulton, and others. This binding, executed in 1929, followed a period of study under the noted bookbinders, Jules Domont, Henri Noulhac and E. Maylnader. Van Sweringen is listed in GYB 1908-09 through 1909-10 giving Boone, Helen Haskell Noyes, and A. Dehartagh (sic.) as teachers. In 1910-11 Louis Jacobs is added; in 1912-13 C. McLeish is added; in 1924-25 Domont, Noulhac, and Maylander are added. Before 1918 the name appears as Sweringen; 1917-18 through 1933-34 as Van Sweringen. This very binding is pictured and discussed in the Guild of Book Workers 75th Anniversary Edition, 1981. This binding is in fine condition in every way. Eleanor Van Sweringen was a noted bookbinder who worked in New York City during the first half of the 20th century. She also schooled other noted bookbinders such as Christine Hamilton Condition Report Very good now a retired US Ambassador. Guild of book workers The Guild of Book Workers was founded in 1906 to "establish and maintain a feeling of kinship and mutual interest among workers in the several hand book crafts." Among its early members are well-known artist-craft workers such as bookbinder Edith Diehl and printers and typographers W.A. Dwiggins and Frederic W. Goudy. At the beginning, potential Guild members were required to show examples of their craftsmanship before being allowed to join. In addition to Cobden-Sanderson, in the early decades our membership included binders such as Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe, Jules Domont, Edith Diehl, Mary Crease Sears, Otto Zahn, Alfred Launder, Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt, and Gertrude Stiles. The printers W.A. Dwiggins, D.B. Updike, and Frederic W. Goudy were also members. Goudy himself printed the Guild Yearbooks on handmade paper for the first five years of the organization. Van Sweringen, Eleanore I. (Chart III) Listed in GYB 1908-09 through 1909- 10 giving Boone, Helen Haskell Noyes, and A. Dehartagh (sic.) as teachers. In 1910-11 Louis Jacobs is added; in 1912-13 C. McLeish is added; in 1924-25 Domont, Noulhac, and Maylander are added. Before 1918 the name appears as Sweringen; 1917-18 through 1933-34 as Van Sweringen. See G 75 for retirement and death.
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