The Washington times., 1902-10-19
By HENRY CHANDLER.

w THAT is more delightful than a
jaAA well-bound well-made book?
Not the cheap, f1ashily got
ten-up affair, to be found on
sale almost everywhere today, which
depends upon the brilliant colors of its
cover design to hide the defects in its
workmanship and contents; but a book
which is masterpiece of the bookbind-
ers' art; tastily but not ostentatiously
treated. and which bears the impress of
excellence. both from an artistic and a
literary standpoint. There is pleasure
In the mere handling of such a volume
Thanks to the practice of presenting
gift books during the holiday season,
well-bound editions Of standard works
may be had today at extremely low fig
ures. The Rubaiyat," Helen of Troy
"Sonnets From the Portuguese" and
many others. in good bindings, are now
S..tia5 Tie reach OF those of even lin
tied means. Perhaps the most popular
CT these gift books are those from the
shops of the Roycroft Art Colony. a.
East Aurora. N. Y, and. indeed. to Ell
u
is due much of the present popularity
of artistic books.
Unique Specimens in Demand.
The desire of book collectors to have
something that may not be owned by
everyone, has given rise to the publica-
tion Of limited editions of books. which
are sold at greatly advanced prices: and
the same desire has opened a field of al |
most unlimited extent to those who pos
sess the ability to extra-illustrate and
otherwise embellish copies of hooks in
order to make them the only ones OF their
exact kind In existence. Books which
were originally cheap editions have been
taken in hand by various artists. have
been filled with original illustrations,
page borders. decorative initial letters.
etc, and have been rebound and sold
Tor several times their original cost
Not few books have been made entire
ly by hand, including the lettering One
page of such work, p copy of one of the
psalms, recently sold In New York for
$75.
The monks Of the middle ages. with
the unlimited time which they had at
their disposal, were adopts at .he art ,
Of illumination, and IL is in imitation of
their work that much of the book deccra-
tion of today is Gone. There is on ex-
hibition in the Congressional Library a
collection of illuminated manuscripts,
some of which were made as carly as
the thirteenth century. The delicate
coloring of the pages. in red. green, pur- =
pie, indigo. gold, and other gorgeous
hues are as fresh today as they were in
the old days, when the patient monk,
with infinite care, first laid them cn the
thick parchment leaves.
Early Egyptian Illumination.
In the earliest days of Egyptian civ ,
ilization, during that faraway time
when the ancient Mena ruled in the
country along the Nile. more than four
years before Christ, illumina- n
tion was in its first stages of growth 4
Bright colors were used in the hero a
glyphic inscriptions to lend beauty to
the text. and the decorations on the
wooden sarcophagi were always bril-
ildul, Oitcn VI 6OlSeOQS COlUTluP. | d
In the National Museum there is Ii
the entire plaster covering o. C,
which is one elaborate piece of illum- b
nation. Figures of Ra, Osiris, Isis, ami Il
other deities appear in the stiff, an al
gular form which characterized Egyp- S,
ian figure drawing, but in the briIliance n
,f the coloring, one does not see the W
awkwardness Of the figures. book pl
lealing with Egyptian subjects has re- 81
,ently been completed by a Washing ia
on man, in which the scheme of dec W
,ration follows. as nearly as possible, us
he Egyptian style OF illumination. The ly