[Rarebooks] fa: GUILD OF WOMEN BINDERS (Johanna Birkenruth) - NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE - 2 vols. 1900

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 13. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/bo95yaa

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Gilbert White: The Natural History of Selborne. London & New York: John Lane, 1900. Edited by Grant Allen; illustrated by Edmund H. New. First edition thus. One volume bound in two; large 8vo (24 x 18.5 cm; 9.5 x 7.5 in); xl, 240p.; 241-528p.; illustrated.

Sumptuously bound by Johanna Birkenruth, an early and eminent associate of the Guild of Women Binders, with her small ink stamp to the preliminary blanks. Contemporary full olive green morocco, upper covers with a gilt-tooled art nouveau monogram "S" (for Selborne, presumably), both covers with gilt-stamped borders and elaborately gilt-tooled  dentelles, spines with raised bands; marbled endpapers, top page edges gilt. Modest wear to the edges and extremities, spines show sunning and a few small scuff marks, some spotting and staining to the boards; offsetting (browning) to the edges of the endpapers from the gilt dentelles opposite, frontispiece tissue guard present but loose; otherwise very clean and sound. Engraved monogram bookplates of Constance Meyerstein. Issued as a single volume in a cloth binding, Lane's handsome and well-illustrated edition of White's classic work is here transformed by the binder into an elegant two-volume set.

The Guild of Women Binders, founded in 1898 and disbanded in 1904, was an informal association of disparate artisanal groups ranging from Scotland to London (the Edinburgh Social Union, Chiswick Art Workers' Guild, etc.). Though short-lived, its often eccentric, sometimes spectacular productions are among the most sought-after book bindings from the turn of the last century. Johanna Birkenruth was one of the first women to give lessons in bookbinding, offering classes in South Kensington, and some of her bindings were exhibited in Chicago as early as 1893. Her jeweled bindings are said to have inspired Sangorski and Sutcliffe to similar efforts. (See Tidcombe, Women Bookbinders, 1880-1920, London, 1996.)