ABSTRACT
The Art of Bookbinding has existed from the time when books were first made, but in the earliest times was little more than a special department of goldsmiths’ work. Valuable books were covered with gold or silver and ornamented with ivory and jewels. The most important foreign bindings of the time were produced in the Low Countries and in France; Germany producing little that is noteworthy, with the exception of some fine hand-worked leather bindings of figure subjects or floral patterns. Frederic Egmondt and Nicolas Lecompte, stationers, who came to England as early as 1493, used panels bearing their initials and marks. Lecompte’s binding is evidently of foreign design, and ornamented simply with an arabesque floral pattern. A collection of English and Italian songs with music is a small quarto in olive morocco, with the arms of the King, heavy corners, and a diaper of the mullet, an effective tool often found on bindings of the time.
