Fig. 78.—English embroidered book, canvas (1648).
In the seventeenth century the taste for velvet bindings still remained, but not so exclusively, as there were many more bound in silk or satin, usually white. The majority of these books are small, Prayers, Bibles, Psalms, and the designs upon them are of great variety, but generally have a symbolic tendency—figures of Faith, Hope, Charity, Peace, Plenty, and numbers of biblical subjects, David and Bathsheba, Solomon and Queen of Sheba, Jacob’s Dream, Jacob wrestling with the Angel, Abraham and Isaac, and many more; and besides these there are numbers of quaint little bindings with floral designs.
Fig. 79.—English embroidered “double” book, satin, seventeenth century.
The period of Nicholas Ferrar’s curious establishment at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire was coincident with the reign of Charles I. Here were contrived most interesting Harmonies of the Scriptures, done under Ferrar’s superintendence by his nieces Mary Collet and her sisters. These ladies, moreover, bound the Harmonies themselves, and were not only the first English lady binders but also the first amateur binders, and they bound exceedingly well. Mrs. Wordsworth was another pioneer among lady binders. She covered her books in pieces of her own old dresses.
Not only did the ladies of Little Gidding bind their Harmonies, sometimes very large, in sheep skin, morocco and calf, but also in velvet, curiously ornamented. I have already mentioned that in the sixteenth century the art of gilding upon velvet was known, but it was reserved for the ladies of Little Gidding to bring it to perfection.
Fig. 80.—English, embroidered binding canvas, seventeenth century.
There will always be some little doubt as to whether these magnificent gold and silver tooled velvet books were done entirely by the binders at Little Gidding, or with the assistance of their masters, Bucks of Cambridge. There is a marked similarity of general style as well as of detail, but the larger Little Gidding books appear particularly to bear the impress of more irresponsible genius than that of the orthodox university printers.
Gilding upon velvet is still practised a little in England; the service books used at the wedding of the present Prince of Wales were in red velvet with the royal monogram impressed in gold upon it.