Harleian tools are more wiry and much closer than the Montague, interspersed with fine-line curls, fine pinhead curve-lines, rosettes, acorns, solid stops, single rings, and cross-buns.
The border upon the same plate illustrates the Harleian pane-side. In the Harleian style there are three distinctly different arrangements for sides and backs, (independent of the flights of fancy in which finishers indulge.) There are on the sides,—first, the two or three-line fillet, stopped; second, the Harleian tooled or spikey border,—a style of finishing peculiarly neat and rich, and well adapted for nearly every description of books.
On original Harleys the tooling went right on from corner to corner, as if worked by a very broad roll; but modern finishers prefer a made-up corner,—that is, a tool or tools projecting at right angles with the corner, up to which the border-tools are worked, thus rendering the whole more harmonious and perfect. The spikey border is worked up to a two or three-line fillet, with the cat-tooth roll worked on the outer line towards the edge of the board. (We may here mention that the cat-tooth, although purely French, may be also considered Harleian, as it is on all the originals we have seen, and accords well with the style.) Third, the pane or panelled side, similar to the illustration. Sometimes a double pane was formed by throwing in a two-line fillet and working a roll on the inside.
On the backs there is the upright centre, the diamond centre and corner, as in the illustration, and the semi-circle with open centre.
The diamond centre was not much used on books of light reading, such as novels, but rather on works of a graver nature, such as divinity, philosophy, and history. It seems to have been the favourite style of the earl's binders; and we must acknowledge that a book never looks so like a book as when finished with a good diamond centre and corner. In forming the diamond centre, the spikes ought to project beyond the stops, as it is then more graceful and pleasing to the eye than when the stop and spikes are flush one with the other.
THE FONTHILL STYLE.
The following account of Fonthill Abbey will, no doubt, be acceptable, in connection with our description of the "style" which has derived its name therefrom.
"Fonthill Abbey, in Wiltshire, justly ranks as one of the grandest structures in the United Kingdom, combining all the elegance of modern architecture with the sublime grandeur of the conventual style. It was built about the end of the last century, at an expense of £400,000, by Mr. William Beckford, son of the public-spirited Lord Mayor of London of that name, whose statue now stands in Guildhall, with a copy of the memorable speech and remonstrance which he addressed to George III. in 1770. Succeeding to almost unbounded wealth, (nearly £100,000 a year,) endowed with an extraordinary mind, literary talents of the highest order, and an exquisite taste for the arts, the young owner of Fonthill Abbey determined to erect an edifice uncommon in design, and to adorn it with splendour; and, with an energy and enthusiasm of which duller minds can form but a poor conception, he soon had his determination carried into effect.
"The gorgeous edifice reared for Mr. B. contained many magnificent suites of apartments. We need only notice two, denominated St. Michael's, and King Edward the Third's Gallery. They are of the most stately and interesting description that can be conceived or imagined: the former filled with the choicest books and many articles of vertu; the latter also employed as a library, but enriched with a much greater number of choice and curious productions, and terminating in an oratory, unique for its elegant proportions and characteristic consistency. It is at once rich and luxurious as the temple of which it forms an appendage,—sombre and soothing as the religious feelings with which its designation associates it.
'Meditation here may think down hours and moments;