1899 CYRIL DAVENPORT. Custom Royal Binding for His Essay on "Royal Bindings." Very Important.

A very important full calf folio binding designed and likely executed by perhaps the most influential binding historian of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Cyril Davenport [1848-1941]. One of the most influential figures in the historic binding renaissance of the period as both a practitioner and author, he authored popular and academic classics in the field, including:

*Byways among English Books

*The Book. Its History and Development

*English Embroidered Bookbindings

*English Heraldic Book Stamps

*The Cantor Lectures on Decorative Bookbinding

*Bookbinding in France

*Beautiful Books

*Leather for Libraries

*Thomas Berthelet. Royal Printer and Bookbinder to King Henry VIII

*Roger Payne. English Bookbinder of the Eighteenth Century

*Samuel Mearne. Binder to King Charles II

*Royal English Bookbindings, etc.

The present binding was designed with reference to the final book mentioned. Davenport's magnum opus on the history of bindings executed for the royalty of England was first issued in 1896. He subsequently published a series of specialized articles on royal bindings in The Anglo-Saxon Review, from which the text bound in the present volume has been taken [December, 1899] and printed on fine paper. 

The binding itself was designed to evoke the characteristic features of the bindings in the library of King Charles II [1638-1705]. Davenport's design here embodies Charles' bindings so well, it was used as the basis for the Folio Society's 1959 Life of King Charles II. It seems he perhaps executed a very limited number of this binding as I do trace one other example of a different essay bound similarly and one also on an annual of The Anglo-Saxon Review. 

Bound from a single piece of calf, both boards identically tooled. It measures 7.75 inches x 11.75 inches. Very good condition with some minor rubbing and a couple of consolidated nicks on board edge. Hand marbled endpapers serve as pastedowns and "wraps" for the sewn section that is tied into the folio with decorative string. Followed by 14 blank pages and then the 6pp article from The Anglo-Saxon Review. 

His printed works in their first states can fetch more than we are asking for this lovely and unique contribution to the history of bookbinding.