Fig. 90.—French blind stamped binding of the sixteenth century. With figure of S. Barbara.
Blind tooled bindings of French origin are numerous enough, especially those impressed with panel stamps. The main characteristic of early work is the existence of perpendicular lines of blind tooling, but although this peculiarity is oftener found on French work than on any other, it is by no means unknown in bindings made by English and German workmen, so must not be taken as an absolute proof of French origin if unsupported by other evidence.
Late in the fifteenth century the panel stamp was invented in Holland, or the Netherlands, and it soon attained a great measure of popularity. It reached England in the early part of the sixteenth century, and although at first foreign dies were freely used here, in time our native binders made their own.
In France and Germany panel stamps were also popular, used on calf bindings, but I think that in Italy it never made much headway.
The Netherlands panel stamps often have the names of the binders upon them, Bollcaert, Bloc, and many more, and the same valuable information is also often found on French panel stamps of the sixteenth century.
The best known names are André Boule, Jean Moulin, R. Macé, and Denis Roce. All these are plentiful, and are often found in excellent condition. The English panel stamps do not bear names upon them, but they often have initials, but whether it is safe to interpret these is difficult to say. We generally consider that J. R. stands for John Reynes, I. N. for Jean Norins, R. L. for Richard Lant, G. G. for Garrett Godfrey, R. P. for Richard Pynson, and so on; but it is probable, anyhow, that although panel stamps of English design bearing these initials were used here, they were largely of foreign, probably Netherlandish, origin.
Fig. 91.—English blind stamped binding, with the arms of Henry VIII.