An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
17
work on the panels of the back is worked by a pallet: and the two Cs mterlaced and crowned,
between branches of palm, which also occur on this back, take the place of the ' fleurons' at the
angles of the panels of the boards, upon other examples; as on a copy of Paolo Paruta's
Hzstoria Venetiana, Venice, 1605 [592. e. 9 & 10.].
The British Museum, also, possesses a Book of Common Prayer, London, 1669, in an exceedingly
rich binding, bearing the crowned cypher of Charles II., which is, apparently, also the work of
Samuel Mearne [468. b. 13.]. It is covered in purple morocco; and the fillets of the panels and
centre-pieces are inlaid with black leather. The elaborate filigree gilding, which covers the
boards, shows. the influence of French work upon its designer; and many of the tools are
engraved with a broken line, consisting not of a series of dots or points, as in the tools of Le
Gascon, but of tiny oblongs. Notwithstanding these traits of design, the character of this binding
remains distinctively English; partly on account of the forms and arrangements of its various
ornaments; and partly on account of its general design, which is an early example of what is
known as the cottage style, so called from the head and tail of the panels on the boards
resembling, in shape, the gable of a cottage. The sides of the panel are, also, generally broken
into various curved forms. Although this style appears to have had its origin in France, during
the first half of the seventeenth century, it became peculiarly associated with English work; and
was especially used, for. a time, upon the Bibles and Prayer-Books, printed at the University
Presses of Oxford and Cambridge. To Samuel Mearne belongs the distinction, of having
introduced into this country, and particularly upon his more simple bindings, an elegancy in the
design and execution of his gilding, comparable, in no slight degree, with contemporaneous
French work. In place of the more obviously decorative methods, which were in vogue before
the time of the Restoration, he substituted a chastened and urbane manner, such as might
become any gentleman's library; anticipating in some sort, as Dryden did in literature, the spirit
of the succeeding century.
The bindings executed for private collectors, during the latter half of the seventeenth century,
do not appear to have been either very numerous, or very remarkable. John Evelyn speaks, in a
letter to Samuel Pepys, written in 1687, of the scarcity of good libraries, at that time, in England;
'Paris alone, I am persuaded,' he adds, 'being able to show more than all the three nations of
Great Britain.' The bindings executed for John Evelyn himself are, perhaps, the most remarkable:
they are in the manner of Samuel Mearne; if, indeed, they be not his work. A facsimile of one of
these, Primigeniae Voces linguae Graecae, Paris, 1619, may be found among the Examples of
Historic or Artistic Bookbinding,