cock and star, having as a centre ornament the arms of France, all worked in gold, lined with vellum, covered with gold tooling, having "May, 1695," in the centre, gilt marbled edges by Ruette. No wonder it brought £406.

At the Sunderland sale a specimen of Monnier's binding brought £530.

Many years ago there was shown in the Stowe Library a book of singular historical interest, and which was also remarkable as a specimen of the old fashion of binding. This was the "Book of Gospels," on which the early English kings down to the time of Edward VI. took the coronation oath. It was arrayed in ponderous oak boards an inch thick, fastened by huge leathern thongs. The corners were protected by huge bosses of brass, while on the cover was a huge brazen crucifix which the monarchs kissed. Brazen clasps mounted in leather secured the volume. This interesting relic, after figuring in the possession of a Norfolkshire gentleman, was some years ago heard of as being the property of "a lady in Belgravia."

The name of GROLIER ever kindles the eye of the bibliophilist. The sight of a piece of this master's work fills him with enthusiasm. Grolier really takes rank with the painters, and excites a keen competition. He was one of the four treasurers of France during the reign of Francis I., and the most celebrated of old book collectors. The binding he adopted was remarkable for the fine character of its interlaced ornament, which is said to have been designed by himself in moments of leisure. We find it recorded with astonishment, some twenty or thirty years ago, that a bookseller gave £150 for an Aldus, "rich and refulgent, yet quiet through

its Grolier tooling." adorned with the amiable inscription, "The property of John Grolier and his friends”—a curious contrast to that of another French collector, whose book-plate bears a text from the parable of the Ten Virgins: "Go to them that sell, and buy for yourselves."

Each volume of his library was

The prices realised for specimens of the ancient bindings were perfectly marvellous at the sale of the choicest portion of the library of M. Libri, the most eminent of modern book-collectors, which took place in London in the beginning of 1860. "The collection exhibited specimens of the finest bibliopegistic skill from the fifteenth century to the present time, and embraced not only the magnificent samples of binding bestowed on the volumes by private amateurs like Grolier, Maioli, De Thou, Count d'Hoym, Longepierre, and others equally celebrated, but was particularly rich in books which formerly had been the private property of popes, emperors, kings, princes, cardinals, and reigning sovereigns of England, France, Italy, Germany, &c., all magnificently bound, and bearing either their arms or the devices known to have been adopted by them. These seem to have been collected with a view of tracing the history of ornamentation. They had availed themselves of the skill of the best artists to obtain designs or patterns, several of which are known to have been furnished by Giovanni da Verona, Andrea del Sarto, le petit Bernard, and even the great Raffaele himself."

The characteristics of the binding of this school were an elegance and delicacy of touch, the gilt lines flowing and interlacing with much freedom-a freedom that was secured by not sinking the golden lines so deeply as is done now; they were more on the surface. It may be conceived, too, that the leather

cannot be so indented or scored as to avoid breaking the surface; whereas by the lines being traced lightly, the gold is shown to better effect. The work of these old masters seems to have the freedom of etching or engraving, so airy are the lines.

It would almost seem that the designs for binding of Grolier, Maioli, and Clovis Eve, and kindred masters, were often suggested, if not copied from the florid frameworks of the title-pages of the French and Italian little quartos in the sixteenth century. These seem again to be taken from the free-hand carved frames and florid scroll-work of the day. The idea seems to have been to decorate the sides as a

framing for the device. Grolier's library contained about three thousand volumes, and it is declared that each fetched about £120. Each side was decorated, one with the device above quoted, the other with the pious one "Let my portion be in the land of the living." The variety and ingenuity of his interlacing of patterns of different shapes crossing and intersecting each other is very pleasing. Bonaventure d'Argonne, an amateur of the day, thus described Grolier's collection: "We might almost think that the Muses, who had done so much for the inside of the books, had striven to take their share in the outside, so much art and esprit is seen in these decorations." They are gilt with a delicacy unknown to later gilders. The compartments are often painted in colours, are admirably designed, and are all of different shapes. Clovis Eve's style was more purely geometrical, while Le Gascon is associated with the beautiful tracery which covered the sides like a golden net, though the effect was found at last a little monotonous. Often it takes the shape of a golden spray. One work of his, "La Guirlande de Julie," is considered a triumph, and

never to have been surpassed in the tone of the gilding, finesse, and workmanship.

The treatment of large quartos and folios by binders of the present century has seemed always to be directed by wrong principles. It is only when we

contrast it with the simple and perfectly effective and legitimate system of the older masters that we see its failings. English binders of this school were particularly favourable to a sort of buff-coloured calf, which makes but an insipid contrast with the profuse gilding, scored at the edges with a rich flowery pattern, so as to give the idea of a border. Most of the books in the Syston Park Library were bound in a fashion that has long since gone out, but which was in vogue some fifty years ago, the principle of which seems to have been an elaborate bordering, of a geometrical kind, very broad bars, and rich gold. The effect was unmeaning and heavy. It seemed to suggest an imitation of a raised or mechanical border. The fashion of our day is to make the tone and workmanship of the leather the main object. The light line of gilding is simply to set off the covering, as a light trimming would a dress; whereas the former system was the reverse—to use the leather as a means of setting off the gilding and decoration. The placing a golden border on the edge of anything is as false a principle as placing a rich lace border at the edge of a lady's dress next to the ground, where rough usage and contact with the ground would soon destroy it. The solid lines of border should be traced at some distance from the edge, and thus preservation as well as effect is secured. Within, the sides were well tooled and scored with parallel lines and flourishings at each corner. These lines, though attenuated, lack force and breadth, and the whole effect is poor. The leaves are

"shaved" smooth, but the gilding shows in one unbroken surface. Now, compare the olden style as displayed in some folio or spacious quarto handled by Derome or La Ruette. Here a well-grained fine skin is selected, of rich ripe plum colour, and the idea is to show that it is a leathern cover or jacketing for the volume. In the decoration the skin is treated as a skin. In the centre on this ground may be displayed the coat of arms, while the leather is allowed to be seen at the edges without gilding—a sign of practical purpose and use, besides being contrasted with the sinuous and irregular "old gold" leaves. Within a quarter of an inch of the edge are drawn three delicate gold lines running all round, which have a strange simplicity and elegance conjoined, and are infinitely more effective than the English bordering. The English boards of this period lie as square and stiffly as if made of timber : the foreign work has a flexibility, and offers curvings. Again, the ornaments used in modern binding are too meagre and stereotyped, and different from the bold, rich, and effective floweret, scroll, or fleur-de-lys. Leather is not suited to such fine lines or designs, save only when delicately touched and on the surface; for even with Le Gascon's network the general effect is as of a mass of gold. The tendency of the binding of our time is in the direction of this olden simplicity; large, expansive, and well-toned skins, fitted with consummate workmanship, and with few or delicate "toolings on the slightest and most modest scale.

The latter part of the eighteenth century saw English bookbinding carried to its highest pitch of celebrity by the remarkable skill of Roger Payne. He came to London about 1700, and soon acquired