Browse Items (8 total)

Irene Nichols created this epitome of the English garden for Samuel Putnam Avery, completing it in her Westminster studio in April 1895. The red goatskin and silk tapestries feature espaliered trees of wisdom and life, climbing rosebushes, networks…

Matthews created this binding for Samuel Putnam Avery in 1890, the year of his retirement, and it is likely his final masterpiece. The buff crushed goatskin is in a design alluding to Jean Grolier’s interlaced styles of titling on the front cover…

Olive-green crushed goatskin and green velvet over wood. Matthews created this display block to demonstrate decorative elements assigned to styles of bindings associated at the time with a half-dozen printers and bookbinders. It is likely connected…

The uniform bindings of red goatskin, gilt, with gilded and painted edges, are the work of William Matthews, Scottish-born New Yorker, who enjoyed a sterling reputation as a bookbinder in Britain and America. He bound this miniature Bible (its…

Roger Payne created this binding in red straight-grain goatskin probably around the time of publication. It is an excellent example of his most accomplished work, with its broad decorative elements in gold on covers and spine, and his characteristic…

This etched portrait was commissioned by the London bookseller Thomas Payne, who was not related to Roger but had employed him for years and was responsible for his burial in 1797. Though traditionally described as working in poverty, Roger Payne’s…

A pictorial binding portraying Roger Payne in his studio, after the engraving by Sylvester Harding (displayed). The Parisian binding was created by Charles Meunier for Henry Walters after 1886. The portrayal consists of a panel of multi-colored…