Cambridge Bookbindings : A gilt-tooled binding for the University Library from the workshop of John Houlden, ca.1658

Dugdale, William 1605-1686, King, Daniel -1664?

Cambridge Bookbindings

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>In the 1650s, William Dugdale gave copies of several of his works to the University Library; they were sent to John Houlden to bind, with a commission to produce something better than average, but not at the top end of the scale. His <i>Monasticon Anglicanum</i> (1655) was rebound in the nineteenth century, and retains only its original fore-edge decoration, while the gift copy of the <i>Antiquities of Warwickshire</i> (1656) has been lost. This is the only intact survivor, pleasingly bound in gilt-tooled calfskin, enhanced with a shield-shaped goatskin onlay with gilt lettering. As well as gilt leaf edges, this has a pastedown of marbled paper, which began to appear in upmarket Cambridge work in the 1650s (having first been used in English binding in the 1630s).</p><p>Pasteboards, covered with mid-brown calfskin, gilt tooled, with a central gilt-tooled onlay of black goatskin. Simply gilt-tooled spine, rebacked with later spine label, preserving much of the original leather; gilt leaf edges; plain paper flyleaves, with separate marbled paper pastedowns.</p><p>Dr David Pearson</p></p>