Modern bookbindings: Their design and decoration

Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
MODERN BOOKBINDINGS
1. Bound by Zaehnsdorf.
S. T. PRIDEAUX
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
1906
Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty
For “Revière” read “Rivière” in List of Illustrations.
For “Morell” read “Morrell” throughout.
Within the last five-and-twenty years there has been a marked revival in every department 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 confined 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 villas, catered for by the enterprising 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 place has hardly yet ceased to be a source of wonder. Nothing remains the same: from wall-paper to coal-box, from bedroom to kitchen, all has ‘suffered a sea change.’ In any examination of the present 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 penetrated 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 industries 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 well as the inlaying of cabinet work not only with coloured woods, but with pewter, ivory and pearl. The spell of convention 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 results; but in the majority of cases the sole achievement has been an eccentricity that shows few signs of a realization of what is needed in applied art and of the laws that should govern it.