New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-12-23

+ advertising him as a binder. lie is not pinoel
by trade, but person-I do not wish to be un-
civil in the of the word person-of some social
position, who practses the binding of books as
n pastirne and otherwise lie may fairly enough
be described as o commercial amateur. The be
ginning of his work on books to be traceable
to notion that every citizen ought TO be capable
of some handcraft lie chose book binding as
he might have chosen shoemaling. Each has tc
do with leather. and art has sometimes no more
to say TO one than TO the other. lie has mastered
the rudiments of the mechanical part of binding
perhaps more than the rudiments. but he has never
yet so far as l know. bound book. What he
has done is to put books into leather cases. and
call them bindings and charge a great price for
them.
He has found customers here. and l believe
has found them in America as well. The number
Of boolS-buyers who have much knowledge OF
bindings is not great and most OF them are do
Gle, and seem only too happy to acquire anything
which they are told is good. They are told To
admire Mr. Sandersors fat backs and sharp
carpenters angles, and they do, or believe they
do. They behold these fiat surfaces OF morocco,
all in a blaze of gold tooling, and they admire
those also So docs child admire the gilt
gingerbread of the confcctioners windows. and
his conviction that the gilt gingerbread is wor.
of art is lust as respectable as the conviction OF
Mr.. Cobden-Sandersons customers lie and MS
customers alike have yet to learn the elewhtary
principles of the art Of decoration as ap'hcu "
books. 1t is not necessary" remarks III Long
with truth. that the morocco should ca s"iuen
of conventional flowers. There is mce true nierie
often In few delicate geometrtl patterns,
There is indeed and Mr.. Lang is NOT Oh 'ne siuo
of the Phistines. His allusiop 10 Mr' oahuei'oN
is unmlstakablc,
perhans some day Mr. anderson Will tell US
,,Jho,bor 10 cvor tboueht q worth while to study
the work Of the great rSsters. lhere nave peei
croot masters in bindiM Not one of them. alas
,vax English The pen who bound for Groler
md for MaioH weo true artists. SO were tho
Ewes and LIE Csscon, perhaps the greatest OF
tbcm all and Du Seuil and Boyet, while the
later +houqh kss pure, work Of the best OF the
rnonv Padelorps and Dcromes is full OF attractive
ness Trauts, who died but the other day In Paris'
,vas tbe equal Of any of them in some respects,
though not In originality or creative faculty.
They may all be studied, for much OF the Dest
work Of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
has survived and much more OF the eighteenth.
It may be that Mr.. Saaderson has seen 1t ana
studded il, but If so it is only 10 renounce the
teachings of all the real artists OF the craft nc
nrofesses to pursue. At the Bibliotheque Rationale
in Paris in the collection of the late Baron James
de Rothsclild in that Of the Due dAumale ao
Chantilly and elsewhere, he may see the best thaC
is 10 be seen and most marvellous and lovely
art it is
II no will not take the trouble to 90 TO Farls nc
may find good reproductions of some of the most
torons bindings in ,olumes not more difficult
to procure than the catalogues OF Mr.. Morgaho'
the famous bookseller of tho Passage des PIANO.
Gr1 in addition a illustrations.
the PRINCIPLES on which these FTenchmen wrought
and the elements of their decorative method
clearly set forth in the treatise Of NM. Marius
Michel. themselves practical binders, though
NOT Of the first class. Their book, La Relieur
Franchise IS on the whole the best now extant.
If he will do none Of all these. things, the first
competent amateur he meets viii tell him that
TO put ifty-dollar binding on ffty-cent book,
as he has often done. is sheer barbarism
An English critic in a London society paper Is
displeased with what l said the other day about
Balmoral and the Queen. and contradicts some OF
nv statements He takes upon himself the pro-
verbally difficult task Of proving negative. III
you believe him. the Queen is never called Inc
Widow" on Deeside presume he has never heard
IT, but the reason said she was so called was be-
cause have heard 1t; not this year only, but Tor
many years past What l said on some other
points is. according to this critic. pure fiction
and laundering nonsense" Language Of that
sort hardly affords basis for discussion or eXplana-
ton. I can only add that for every statement
which he denies so civilly I had either personal
knowledge or the best authority and that they are
all entirely true The denial comes, perhaps, from
some member of the royal household plus royaliste
Que lie roi The royal household includes persons
of all ranks some in livery and some out. Some
Of them are not above accepting half-crowns for
bits of gossip, mostly inaccurate, supplied to the
truthful sheet from which l am quoting. The par
arraph in question is dare say, the printed equiv
alent of one Of these half-crowns and not dear at
the money.
With the permission Of the cable and The com
positors and other instruments Of Overruling fate,
should like to say that did not speak Of the cleo
ton of the Rev. Stewart Headlam on the London
School Board as an example Of democratic caprice
because he IS patron Of the ballot. 1t is the bal
let of which this ornament Of the Church Of Eng
land is the patron and champion His Bishop leaves
him out in the cold, but some thousands of London
electors. knowing that he regards the ballet as a
moral agency. think him none the less capable OF
saving how their children should be educated.
C. s
prOpIF WHO MAKE YOU TIRED