Seventeenth & Eighteenth Centuries

The Whole Booke of Psalmes.  London: Company of Stationers, 1643. 

This miniature Psalter is bound in white silk, embroidered in a floral pattern with polychrome silks, gold metallic thread, and silver bullion stumpwork.  While the silver is somewhat oxidized, as is only to be expected after 380 years, the overall pattern is wonderfully bright.  Work like this was created by a host of anonymous professional needlewomen, many working for milliners at the Royal Exchange in London. 

Gift of Samuel Putnam Avery, Jr., 1918. 

Cat. no. 3.7. 

Book of Hours, Use of Paris (Latin).  Paris: Michaël Dauplet, 1673. 

This miniature is bound in silver filigree over boards covered in rose-colored silk, the filigree covers decorated with enamel portraits of saints and angels, adorned with fourteen amethysts.  Dauplet may be responsible for the filigree binding, recently identified on no fewer than a dozen examples, on books dated between the 1670s and the 1690s, all with Parisian imprints. 

Gift of Samuel Putnam Avery, Jr., 1918. 

Cat. no. 3.13. 

Petronius Arbiter. Satyricon.  Amsterdam: Willem Jansz. Blau, 1626. 

This miniature was bound in red goatskin by Macé Ruette in Paris for Habert de Montmor, whose monogram is surrounded by four S-fermés (= fermesse, steadfastness or loyalty).  Ruette was a principal bookbinder in Paris, sometimes credited with the invention of marbled paper; he and his son and successor Antoine were royal bookbinders. 

Gift of Samuel Putnam Avery, Jr., 1918. 

Cat. no. 3.6. 

V. C. Exercice spirituel ou est enseigné au Chrestien la manière d’employer le jour au service de Dieu.  Paris: Pierre Rocolet, 1642.

This binding of red goatskin with olive-green goatskin onlays is decorated in a pointillé design in late fanfare style, featuring myriad gilt small tools in compartments.  It is highly accomplished work created for the atelier “Rocolet” by one of the outstanding Parisian binders of the era, though Rocolet claimed it as his own craftsmanship. 

Gift of Samuel Putnam Avery, 1891. 

Cat. no. 3.10. 

Joseph Glanvill.  Seasonable Reflections and Discourses in Order to the Conviction, & Cure of the Scoffing, & Infidelity of a Degenerate Age.  London: Henry Mortlock, 1676. 

This Restoration-era binding in black goatskin is very elaborately executed for such a modest tract, but it may be the dedication copy that garnered its author the clerical appointment as prebendary of Worcester.  The design features the repeated but unattributed tool of a raptor, found on English bindings from the 1670s to the 1690s, tentatively assigned the sobriquet of the Reluctant Falcon Binder. 

Gift of Samuel Putnam Avery, 1901. 

Cat. no. 3.16. 

Guillaume Coquillart.  Les Oeuvres.  Paris: Jeanne de Marnef, 1546. 

Midnight-blue goatskin, gilt with a design incorporating the ciphers of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, thus seeming to date from their reign in the first half of the 17th century.  Au contraire, this is one of 33 small volumes created by Luc-Antoine Boyet between 1690 and 1700 for Jérôme Crespin Duvivier, military officer and connoisseur, famous as a collector of Claude Lorrain.  These books are now known as the Archaizing “Louis XIII – Anne of Austria” Bindings. 

Gift of Frank Altschul, 1923. 

Cat. no. 3.17. 

Michele Chalier.  San Giuliano, nobile Fiammingo, detto Il Buon’ Albergatore de’ Pellegrini.  Rome: Bernabò, 1725. 

This Roman binding of glazed reddish-brown calf, created for Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and with his armorials, is the work of a successor to the Andreoli brothers.  It is possible that the Andreoli tools remained in the Vatican bindery, where they continued to be employed sporadically throughout the 18th century. 

Gift of H. George Fletcher, 2021. 

Cat. no. 4.4. 

Almanach Royal, Année M. DCC. LVII.  Paris: Le Breton, 1757. 

This binding of pierced vellum, the cutouts backed with red and black foil, is Parisian, probably created, like the book itself, late in the year 1756.  It features armorials of three green shamrocks beneath a coronet, previously anonymous, now attributed to an Irish physician, Dr. MacMahon, a member of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Paris, who lived at the École Militaire. 

Gift of Samuel Putnam Avery, 1901. 

Cat. no. 4.12. 

Geistliche Sommer:Rosen, voll andächtige Gebett auff alle Ständt gerichtet, mit schönen Kupfferstücken geziert.  Munich: Johann Jäcklin, 1650. 

Silver openwork in silver-gilt, in a highly detailed pattern of flora, with two silver clasps on the fore-edge, from the 18th century and possibly South German in origin.  An annotation records the 1883 death of a woman in her 83rd year.  It is worth noting that this 18th-century German binding protects a much older book.  Metal book covers were moved regularly to newer prayerbooks when earlier books wore out or became obsolete. 

Gift of Samuel Putnam Avery, Jr., 1918. 

Cat. no. 4.37. 

Embroidered binding for a cardinal.  Italy (Rome?), ca. 1758. 

Muted green velvet over boards, embroidered with the arms of an unidentified cardinal in slightly oxidized silver stumpwork.  The few details in this empty binding suggest that it was created in 1758, that it once contained a small work, and that it was sold in 1916.  Roman communities of nuns were renowned for this type of needlework. 

Gift of Beverly Chew, 1917. 

Cat. no. 4.14. 

Bernardino Ridolfi.  In funere Caroli III Hispaniarum Regis Catholici oratio habita in sacello pontificio.  Parma: Giambattista Bodoni, 1789. 

This dedication copy for King Charles IV of Spain records the funeral obsequies held in the papal chapel for his father, Charles III.  It is bound in black velvet, dramatically embroidered with the son’s armorials and decorated with silver coins in the Antique style, with many other elements.  It is Roman work, most likely the work of a congregation of nuns. Embroidered mourning bindings are exceedingly rare. 

Gift of Amy Welcher, 1992. 

Cat. no. 4.29. 

John Milton.  Paradise Lost, a Poem.  Glasgow: Robert & Andrew Foulis, 1770. 

This binding, executed in a dramatic rococo and chinoiserie style, is the work of the Edinburgh binder James Scott, ca. 1775.  It features Corinthian columns, elaborate floral swags, and fountains, and it is noteworthy for the Masonic emblem of a triangle within a sunburst.  Nine examples of this binding, in mottled brown calf or red goatskin, are recorded, and this folio edition is one of the most imposing Foulis productions.   

Gift of William F. Havemeyer, 1908. 

Cat. no. 4.20. 

Jose Gómez de la Cruz.  Prodigiosa vida, del glorioso Padre San Francisco de Paula.  Madrid: Andres Ortega, 1762. 

This contemporary Spanish binding in light-brown goatskin is noteworthy for its creation for a woman bibliophile.  Her name is recorded across the front and rear covers: soy de doña maria agustina lopez de castro, with her Caritas (charity or love) motto.  The style of binding, with its catches and clasps, is interestingly old-fashioned for the 18th century. 

Purchased on the Trust Fund of Lathrop Colgate Harper, supported by gifts from Consuelo Dutschke, Barbara Shailor, and William Stoneman in memory of Georgie Gatch, 2018. 

Thucydides.  The Peloponnesian War (Greek).  Geneva: Henri Estienne, 1564. 

Green-stained vellum over boards, gilt cockleshells on the covers, and gilt crossed maces in the spine compartments.  The cockleshell is the armorial device of the Aguesseau family of Limoges, and the maces denote the power of a chancellor of France.  The binding was made for Henri-François d’Aguesseau, famous Parisian jurist, prolific author, owner of a great library, and three-time Chancellor of France between 1717 and 1750.  

Gift of Edwin B. Holden, 1899. 

Cat. no. 4.2. 

The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments.  Edinburgh: Alexander Kincaid, 1772. 

One volume, bound in two, in uniform dark olive-green goatskin with red goatskin onlays, all extensively gilded.  A citron goatskin onlay on the large red onlay on the front cover of the first volume contains the name Marianne Callander.  This would suggest that the binding was created speculatively, the second onlay with her name being required upon later purchase; this was a regular practice.  The bindings are the work of James Scott of Edinburgh and contain his engraved binder’s ticket. 

Gift of Samuel Putnam Avery, 1899. 

Cat. no. 4.23.