Modern Bookbindings - Their Design And Decoration

MODERN ENGLISH BINDING WITHIN the last five-and-twenty yeara there has been a marked revival in every de partment of applied art. The influence of William Morris, whose efforts in all the accessories of house decoration were for some time only recognized by the few, has now spread to all classes. No longer con- fined to the houses of the rich or of those who profess the cult of aesthetics, it is to be found with more or less of travesty in country rectories and suburban viIlas, catered for by the enterpriging tradesman on the monthly hire system. To those who remember vividly the early Victorian surroundings of the home and their prevailing ugliness, the complete change which has taken plae has hardly yet ceased to be a source of wonder. Nothing remains the same from mall-paper to coal-box, from bedroom to kitchen, all has suffered a sea change. In any examination of the pre- sent condition of the artistic crafts and the promise they present of future development on a sound basis, one cannot fail to observe that the effort to promote taste has pene- trated to the commonest objects of daily use. The thought that finds expression in decoration has gone to salt-cellars and buttons as well as to carpets, cabinets and books. Some industriea too, that may almost be said to have died out for lack of appreciation, have been revived on new lines and taken up by the public with enthusiastic approval. The use of enamel in jewellery and in combination with wrought metal may be mentioned as an instance of this, as tveU as the inlaying of cabinet work not only with coIoured moods, but with pewter, ivory and pearl. The spell of conventioa once broken, the imagination of the craftsman has found relief in flying to the furthest distance from models that were till recently his only guide. This freedom, when restrained by genuine artistic feeling, has given in many cases excellent resu1t.a but in the majority of cases the sole achievemelt has been an eccentricity thaf shows few signs of a realization of what is needed in applied art and of the laws that should govern it. In no sphere has there been a more striking departure from the hitherto cir- cumscribed lines of ornamentation than in everything that relates to books and their decorative treatment. Paper and ink, type and its massing on the page, illustration both as a, part of the text and outside it, the materials and enrichment of the cover -all have alike undergone fundamental re- consideration. It is, however, with bindings and not with the other features of book production that we a...