HUMPHREYS, Henry Noel.

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The Miracles of Our Lord. First edition of this icon of 19th-century book design. It is one of a handful of titles that showcase Humphrey's black (so-called) papier-mâché binding and displays a fantastic suite of his chromolithographs.Such bindings, which imitate carved ebony, were cast in plaster over a papier mâché mould. "The result was splendidly gothic and impressive", and they represent "perhaps the biggest triumph among all the ingenuities of Victorian commercial book-binding" (McLean, pp. 72 & 151). This design was inspired by a binding of carved ivory on a psalter in the British Museum.Humphreys (1810-1879) was also heavily influenced by Italian and Flemish manuscripts of the Middle Ages. The skill of the chromolithography demonstrated here is masterly and improves upon that of his previous titles.

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