Remarkable Bindings in the British Museum
Selected for their Beauty or Historic Interest

A beautifully illustrated work on the history of bookbinding, chiefly in the British Museum library, first published in 1889.

Henry Benjamin Wheatley (Author)

9781108021517, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 October 2010

340 pages, 73 b/w illus.
29.7 x 21 x 1.8 cm, 0.82 kg

Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838–1917) was a prolific writer on bibliography, literature and the arts. As founder of the Index Society, and editor of The Bibliographer, he was also involved in the foundation of the Library Association. In that context he wrote several works on library topics, and this volume contains two works on bookbinding, Remarkable Bindings in the British Museum (1889) and Bookbinding Considered as a Fine Art, Mechanical Art and Manufacture (1882). The former contains descriptions and illustrations of 62 examples of bookbinding then in the British Museum library, notable as beautiful examples from different countries and periods, or different materials, or for their historic interest. The second piece was a paper read to the Society of Arts in 1880. It outlines the history of bookbinding styles in different countries, and then discusses it both as an art form and from a practical point of view, with illustrations.

1. Bindings in ivory, metal, enamel, painting
2. Bindings in leather
3. Bindings in embroidered silk and velvet
4. Italian and German bindings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
5. French bindings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
6. English bindings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
7. English and French bindings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Early history of bookbinding
Binding in Germany and the Netherlands
Binding in Italy
Binding in France
Binding in England
Binding as a fine art
Binding as a mechanical art
Binding as a manufacture
Practical points connected with binding
Appendix
Discussion
Catalogue of specimens of binding lent for exhibition
List of engravings.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]