CHIVERS BINDING - BOYLE, Eleanor Vere.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Ros rosarum ex horto poetarum. An appropriately floral binding by Cedric Chivers in his celebrated "vellucent" style, adorning a rose-related compendium. The verse excerpts, which appear both in their original languages and alongside English translations, were collected by the prolific Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825-1916), who provided the illustrations. Tennyson, whose May Queen (1852) Boyle illustrated, composed his poem The Rosebud in honour of this anthology, which was first published in 1885.Publishing under her initials, "E.V.B." was best known as an illustrator, whose work Dante Gabriel Rossetti admired. In later life she also wrote various volumes on gardening.Cedric Chivers (1853-1929), one of the most successful bookbinders of his time, developed a new technique for binding books in the 1890s. His elaborate cover designs were painted on paper and then covered by vellum, which had been treated to become translucent. In his bindery he employed "about forty women for folding, sewing, mending, and collating work, and in addition, five more women worked in a separate department, to design, illuminate, and colour the vellum" (Tidcombe, p. 86). The style they popularized influenced, and became closely associated with, the arts and crafts movement. Chivers patented his method in 1898 and used it to create some of the most beautiful books of the fin de siècle.

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