A Manual of the Art of Bookbinding. James B. Nicholson
proves.
"Homer the bard, who sung in highest strains
The festive gift, a goblet for his pains;
Falernian gave Horace, Virgil fire,
And Barley Wine my British Muse inspire.
Barley Wine first from Egypt's learned shore;
And this the gift to me of Calvert's store."
The following bill is, like himself, a curiosity:—
| "Vanerii Praedium Rusticum. Parisiis. mdcclxxiv. Bound in the very best manner in the finest Green Morocco. The back lined with Red Morrocco. | ||
| "Fine Drawing paper and very neat Morrocco Joints inside. Their was a few leaves stained at the foredge, which is washed and cleaned … | } | 0 : 0 : 6 |
| "The subject of the Book being Rusticum, I have ventured to putt The Vine Wreath on it. I hope I have not bound it in too rich a manner for the Book. It takes up a great deal of time to do these Vine Wreaths. I guess within Time I am certain of measuring and working the different and various small tools required to fill up the Vine Wreath that it takes very near 3 days' work in finishing the two sides only of the Book—but I wished to do my best for the Work— and at the same time I cannot expect to charge a full and proper price for the Work, and hope that the price will not only be found reasonable but cheap | 0 : 18 : 0" |
Roger commenced business in partnership with his brother Thomas Payne, and subsequently was in like manner connected with one Richard Weir, but did not long agree with either, so that separation speedily took place. He afterward worked under the roof of Mr. Mackinlay, but his later efforts showed that he had lost much of that ability he had been so largely endowed with. Pressed down with poverty and disease, he breathed his last in Duke's Court, St. Martin's Lane, on the 20th of November, 1797. His remains were interred in the burying-ground of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, at the expense of Mr. Thomas Payne, who, as before stated, had been his early friend, and who, for the last eight years of his life, had rendered him a regular pecuniary assistance both for the support of his body and the performance of his work.
Of the excellencies and defects of his bindings, Dr. Dibdin, in his "Bibliographer's Decameron," has thus recorded his opinion:—
"The great merit of Roger Payne lay in his taste—in his choice of ornaments, and especially in the working of them. It is impossible to excel him in these two particulars. His favourite colour was that of olive, which he called Venetian. In his lining, joints, and inside ornaments, our hero generally, and sometimes melancholily, failed. He was fond of what he called purple paper, the colour of which was as violent as its texture was coarse. It was liable also to change and become spotty, and as a harmonizing colour with olive it was odiously discordant. The joints of his books were generally disjointed, uneven, carelessly tooled, and having a very unfinished appearance. His backs are boasted of for their firmness. His work excellently forwarded—every sheet fairly and bona fide stitched into the back, which was afterward usually coated in russia; but his minor volumes did not open well in consequence. He was too fond of thin boards, which, in folios, produces an uncomfortable effect, from fear of their being inadequate to sustain the weight of the envelop."
Though Roger Payne's career had not been successful, so far as he was personally concerned, it had the effect of benefiting the whole race of English bookbinders. A new stimulus had been given to the trade, and a new and chastened style introduced among the more talented artists of the metropolis. The unmeaning ornaments we have before alluded to were discarded, and a series of classical, geometrical, and highly-finished designs adopted. The contemporaries of Roger—Kalthœber, Staggemier, Walther, Hering, Falkner, &c.—exerted themselves with a generous rivalry to execute the most approved bindings.
Mr. Mackenzie deserves to be mentioned with respect among modern binders. Charles Lewis, so highly eulogized by Mr. Dibdin, attained great celebrity, and his bindings are much prized. His style of ornament was very neat, the panels of the backs generally double-mitred, and the sides finished in a corresponding manner. Mr. Clarke deserves especial commendation; for tree-marbled calf he stands unrivalled, although Mr. Riviere has executed some beautiful specimens. Mr. Bedford also enjoys considerable reputation; but it is to Mr. Hayday that the leading position among the London artists is now generally assigned. His quaint old-fashioned morocco bindings are inimitable. Lady Willoughby's Diary has been extensively copied, but not equalled. His Bibles and Prayer Books are well forwarded; the edges are solidly gilt with gold of a very deep colour, while the finishing is rich and massive without being gaudy. A book in the library of J. W. King Eyton, Esq., bound by Hayday, is thus described:—
"The work is a large paper copy of the late Mr. Blakeway's 'Sheriffs of Shropshire,' in imperial folio, with the armorial bearings beautifully coloured. The binding is of blood-coloured morocco, extending an inch and a half all round the inside of the cover, on which is placed a bold but open border tooled in gold, forming a fine relief to the rest of the inside, which is in purple, elegantly worked all over in hexagons running into each other in the Venetian style. In each compartment is placed the lion rampant and fleur-de-lis alternately. The fly-leaves are of vellum, ornamented with two narrow gold lines, and the edges are tooled. The back consists of hexagons, inlaid with purple, containing the lion and fleur-de-lis aforesaid, but somewhat smaller than those in the interior. The design on the outside is a triumphal arch, occupying the entire side, highly enriched, with its cornices, mouldings, &c. executed in suitable small ornamental work; from its columns, (which are wreathed with laurel,) and other parts of the structure, are suspended the shields of the Sheriffs, seventy in number, the quarterings of which, with their frets, bends, &c., are curiously inlaid in different colours of morocco, and, with the ornamental parts of the bearings, have been blazoned with heraldic accuracy on both sides of the volume. When we state that more than 57,000 impressions of tools have been required to produce this wonderful exemplar of ingenuity and skill, some idea may be formed of the time and labour necessary for its execution."
This volume was finished by Thomas Hussey, who is now employed in Philadelphia, and who has in his possession the patterns executed upon the sides and back.
The French degenerated in binding from the time of Louis XIV. until they became far inferior to the English. This continued to the beginning of the present century; the books bound for the Emperor Napoleon, upon which no expense appears to have been spared, are clumsy, disjointed, and the tools coarse and unevenly worked. They were generally bound in red morocco, with morocco joints, lined with purple silk, upon which the imperial bee was stamped repeatedly. Thouvenin enjoys the honour of rescuing the art from its long-continued degradation in France, and of founding a school whose disciples are now acknowledged to rank with the great masters of the art. His tools and patterns were designed and cut by artists in his employ; his establishment was on a large scale; but at his death he left nothing behind him but his reputation as an artist, to stimulate others to attain excellence in workmanship and a cultivated taste in ornament and design. Among the most celebrated binders of the present day in France are, Trautz et Bauzonnet, Niédré, Duru, Capé and Lortic. The books of these artists are distinguished for solidity, squareness, freedom of the joints, firmness of the heads and back, and extreme nicety of finish. The fore-edges are gilt with the round in them, giving them a solid rich appearance, as yet unequalled. The material employed is of the choicest kind—soft, rich Levant morocco being the favourite covering for choice books. This leather, in the hands of an ordinary workman, would make a clumsy covering upon account of its great thickness; for it cannot be shaved down by a skin-dresser without destroying the natural grain of the leather, and, with it, its velvet-like richness and beauty; and yet, under the manipulations of these French artists, it becomes one of the most plastic of materials; rare volumes of the smallest dimensions, containing but one or two sheets, are not only covered on the exterior, but the interior of the boards, and even the joints are of Levant morocco. There are many specimens of binding executed in