The Art of Bookbinding by Joseph Zaehnsdorf first edition 1880

ZAEHNSDORF, Joseph W. The Art of Bookbinding. London, George Bell and Sons, 1880.
 
A workshop demonstration / exhibition binding by Zaehnsdorf
 
First edition. Octavo, xxiv, 187 pp., with 10 photo-lithographic plates. Finely bound in contemporary full red morocco, the covers decorated with a series of thirteen concentric gilt fillets forming a restrained geometric panel, spine with raised bands and gilt tooling, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Binder's printed ticket "Bound by Zaehnsdorf" to the front pastedown and gilt circular workshop / exhibition stamp to the rear pastedown. A small bookseller's stamp of Bartlett and Co., Boston, to the front free endpaper. Bookplate of Walter Sidney Scott. The binding in fine condition. Four to five preliminary leaves moderately foxed; the remainder of the text clean and fresh. Overall a fine binding with contents very good.
 
Joseph William Zaehnsdorf (1816–1886) was one of the most celebrated bookbinders of the nineteenth century. Having established his workshop in London in the 1840s, he became binder to the Royal Family and one of the leading figures in the revival of fine binding in Victorian Britain. His firm produced bindings for leading collectors and libraries and regularly exhibited examples of their craftsmanship at international exhibitions and trade displays.
 
Published in 1880, The Art of Bookbinding was Zaehnsdorf's practical and historical treatise on the craft, intended both for professional binders and for collectors interested in the techniques of fine binding. The work discusses the history of binding, materials, finishing tools, and the methods employed in high quality workshops during the nineteenth century. It quickly became a standard reference work and remained influential well into the twentieth century.
 
The present copy is particularly appropriate in being bound by the Zaehnsdorf workshop itself. The restrained geometric design, formed entirely from carefully ruled gilt fillets, is characteristic of late Victorian demonstration bindings in which precision of finishing as well as the quality of the leather and gilding was used to show off what they could produce. Bindings of this type were frequently produced by major firms as examples of workshop craftsmanship and were sometimes shown in exhibitions or retained as representative work to show to prospective customers. A fine example.