Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/272

 260 The Library. style attributed to the Eves, and executed for Queen Elizabeth. Unless we are mistaken it is the same binding which attracted great attention when exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club. After this we have a long series of the common calf bindings, made hideous by the emblems of Henry, Prince of Wales. Those bound for Charles I. after he succeeded his brother as Prince of Wales, and during his reign show much better taste. A copy of Fuller's Holy State (1642) in olive morocco (?), with some light tooling in the corners, is a really graceful piece of work. The " Poesie Latine" of Cardinal Barberino, bound for Henrietta Maria in the same year (plate 27) reminds us how sadly Italian taste had deteriorated since the days of Aldus. Two Eikons (plates 35, 36) are interesting for their silver clasps and medallion bearing the King's portrait. A Bible of 1660, in blue morocco, with gold foliage, is a splendid specimen of ornate English work, and we are glad to see that a special plate is devoted to its back. The cover of Wright's Account of Lord Castlemaine 1 s Embassy to Rome, 1688, in red morocco, with Le Gasconesque tooling, is another fine piece of English work, and the same may be said for a List of Ships of the Royal Navy, bound in 1715, for George I. But the decadence was now approaching, and the Tasso of 1745 and Bible, bound in the reign of George II., with inlaid leathers, are only worthy of the Great Exhibition. The last royal binding shown is a Persian cover, enclosing a translation of the Queen's More Leaves from our Journal in the Highlands, a fine modern specimen of oriental work. Among the other bindings of which illustrations are given we may note especially characteristic examples of French work, executed for Henri III. and IV., and Marguerite de Valois, also a decree of Frederick, King of Sicily, dated 1484, in a Venetian blind-tooled binding, with a few points of gold, and a special receptacle for the seal. Bindings for English collectors of the seventeenth century, bearing the arms of Smythe, Town- ley, Edwards, Sir Christopher Hatton, Strafford, Sheldon, Dering and others, form a very interesting series, and encourage the hope that we may one day see an English Guigard, which, though it may be a poor thing beside the French, will probably show that there have been more English collectors accustomed to place their arms on their book than is generally suspected. Plate 100, an edition of the Psalms printed at Edin- burgh in 1615, shows a Grolieresque design of such striking excellence that we can hardly believe it to be Scotch work of that date. Of English bindings of the palmy period, from 1680 to 1730, there are several fine specimens, notably a Pearson on the Creed, dated 1723, which is really splendid. No examples are given of the second great period of English work, that of Roger Payne and Lewis, nor does the Windsor Library appear to possess any example of bindings executed for Grolier, Maioli or De Thou. A Canevari book is shown, but only a very poor one. At the end of the book are some fine examples of Persian work, most wonder- fully reproduced. Hieroglyphic Bibles, their Origin and History ; a hitherto un- written chapter of Bibliography. With facsimile illustrations. By W. A. Clouston. And a new Hieroglyphic Bible told in stories by Frederick A. Laing. Glasgow: David Bvyce and Sons, 1894. Pp- xvi., 316. i8f. Mr. Clouston has written a rather needlessly large book on a very small subject. The largeness, it is true, is mainly a matter of thick paper and wide margins, plus the impertinent introduction of the " New Hieroglyphic Bible" by Mr. Laing. This may be welcome to children, but it is quite