Fig. 24.—Le Nouveau Testament. Amsterdam, 1718. George II.
There are several of George II. bindings at Windsor, made for him when he was Prince of Wales. These generally bear the Prince of Wales’ feathers as a chief motive, and they often have broad borders, much of the ornamentation of which contains stamps of crowns, sceptres, and birds, which are attributed to Eliot and Chapman. There are other inlaid bindings made for George II. which often have doublures. Some of these are figured in Mr. Holmes’s Bookbindings at Windsor. Bindings of a similar kind that were made for Frederick Prince of Wales, and for his wife, the Princess Augusta, are also preserved at Windsor. These have always heraldic centres, and generally the broad Eliot and Chapman outer borders.
Fig. 25.—Chandler. A Vindication of the Defence
of Christianity. London, 1728. George II.
Fig. 26.—Common Prayer. Cambridge, 1760.
Queen Charlotte.
For George III., both when Prince of Wales and King, books were bound with coloured inlays by Andreas Lande. There are specimens of his work both in the British Museum and at Windsor, they are not in particularly good taste. During the reign of George III. a remarkable English bookbinder worked in London. This was Roger Payne; and, although he himself does not seem to have bound any royal books, he strongly influenced many who did, more particularly Kalthœber, who bound many of the books in the King’s Library at the British Museum. Although these bindings are by no means so good as their originals, they are a very great advance upon their immediate predecessors; and a delicately worked and effective instance covers a copy of the Gutenburg Bible now at the British Museum.