Modern Monastic.
MODERNIZED MONASTIC.
This style is now in great vogue, under the appellation of the antique. The materials employed are divinity calf and brown or Carmelite morocco, with very thick boards, edges either red, brown, or matted gilt; very high raised bands. The style of ornament is illustrated by Plate II., intended for a side-stamp to be done by the press. It can also be done by hand, with rolls, fillets, and hand-stamps, omitting the broad and narrow fillet, and substituting either a one or two-line, working the circles with gouges. The tools are all worked blind. This style of binding, when appropriate to the book, produces a very pleasing effect.
ARABESQUE.
"The term is more commonly applied to the species of ornament used in adorning the walls, pavements, and roofs of Moorish and Arabian buildings, consisting of an intricate heterogeneous admixture of fruits, flowers, scrolls, and other objects, to the exclusion of animals, the representation of which is forbidden by the Mohammedan religion. This kind of ornament is now frequently used in the adorning of books, plate, &c. Foliage very similar to that used by the Arabians, intermixed with griffins, &c., were frequently employed on the walls and friezes of temples, and on many of the ancient Greek vases; on the walls of the baths of Titus, at Pompeii, and many other places."—Craig's Universal Dictionary.
As regards book-finishing, we have looked into more than one authority, and are really unable to define what the "arabesque" style is or ought to be. The well-understood term "roan embossed" is, in our opinion, the nearest approach to it at the present day.
Plate III. is an adaptation of an old German design for embossing. The figure is raised, the plate being worked with a counter, in a powerful press.
3.