Cambridge Bookbindings : A gilt-tooled binding from the workshop of Thomas Dawson, ca.1701-05

Terence., Leng, John 1665-1727

Cambridge Bookbindings

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>The workshop of Thomas Dawson (1634-1708) was one of the major Cambridge binderies around the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, producing a great many bindings of all kinds, from simply blind-tooled leather for everyday purposes to elaborately gilded goatskin for presentation. He was a successful bookseller as well as a binder, whose name appears in several Cambridge inprints of the time; after his death, the business was continued by his younger son, also Thomas (b.1665). This is a nice example of what might be considered a mid-market Dawson binding, from the turn of the century. This one covers one of the quarto editions of the classics which were printed in 1699-1702 as part of a revitalisation of the University Press; there are numerous similarly-bound copies of these commissioned from Dawson.</p><p>Pasteboards, covered with mottled brown calfskin, gilt-tooled. The spine is gilt-tooled to an “arc and arrowhead” pattern, popular at the time; the title label is contemporary, the “SCHOL: BUR:” label a later addition. Green sprinkled leaf edges; narrow gilt roll round board edges; conjugate plain paper flyleaves and pastedowns.</p><p>Dr David Pearson</p></p>