Cambridge Bookbindings : A gilt-tooled binding from the workshop of Edwin Moore, ca.1761-65

Church of England

Cambridge Bookbindings

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>The name which is most immediately associated with Cambridge bookbinding work of the middle decades of the eighteenth century, and whose workshop produced many handsomely-decorated bindings, is Edwin Moore (1701-1773), who probably trained with the younger Thomas Dawson and took over his workshop around or a little before 1740. The ornamental design which became fashionable in England for upmarket binding work, from about 1720, is what has come to be known as “Harleian style”, characterised by a large central lozenge-shaped pattern made up of small tools symmetrically arranged, surrounded by a wide border of rolls and/or other tools around the perimeters. Moore’s better quality work conformed very much to this idea, and numerous bindings like this survive, made from the 1740s, 50s and 60s.</p><p>Pasteboards, covered with black goatskin, gilt-tooled. Rebacked, preserving most of the original gilt-tooled spine; gilt leaf edges; narrow gilt roll round board edges, and turn-ins; marbled paper flyleaves and pastedowns.</p><p>Dr David Pearson</p></p>