An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
Reliures d'art a la Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, 1888, are the only other books of which I have
made any general use. My principal authority in writing the chapter on French bindings has been
M. Thoinan's recent work, Les Relt"eurs Franfais, Paris, 1893. This book, together with M. Leon
Gruel's Manuel Historique et Bibliographique de !' A mateur de ,Re!iures, Paris, 1887 MM.
Marius-Michel's La Reliure Franfaise depuis !' invention de !' I mprimerie fusqu' a la fi1Z du xvz'iie
siecle, Paris, 1880; and M. Alexander Quentin Bauchart's Les Femmes Bibliophiles de France,
Paris, 1886; have been constantly referred to by me in the course of this chapter. The materials,
which have hitherto been collected for the history of gold-tooled binding in England, are few and
inconsecutive: and the one general authority on this subject, of which I have been able to make
any considerable use, consists in three articles on English Bookbindings which appeared in the
numbers of the Portfolio for March, April, and May, 1893; and which have since been reprinted
with other essays under the title of Some Minor Arts aspractised in England, London, 1894- To
the writer of these papers, Mr. William Younger Fletcher of the British Museum, I am, also,
indebted for no little assistance while writing this essay. Other authorities are given, as they
occur, in the text.
The bindings, of any nation are, perhaps, only to be completely studied in the country, in which
they were produced: certainly, the art of the French bookbinder is nowhere to be seen as in
Paris, among the books of the Bibliotheque Nationale, and other public and private libraries.
Apart, however, from the unrivalled assemblage of English bindings, which are preserved in the
British Museum, we possess in that collection, an admirable series of French and Italian bindings:
and in order to make the present volume more generally useful to the' amateur' in this country, I
have endeavoured, in so far as it is possible, to entirely illustrate my meaning by examples in our
National Museum; adding the press marks of the books in brackets.
It remains for me to add, that I have endeavored to write about my subject, not merely as an
antiquary and a critic, but as an artist; for the art of bookbinding is yet a living art, sensible to
new emotions, and capable of new expressions.