The Art of the Bookbinder and Gilder

M. Dudin

2025

Full black goatskin with inlays of coquille d’oeuf (eggshell) lacquer and sunago gold lacquer, triangles of applied 22c gold leaf, linear dots and title on spine hand tooled in 22c yellow gold leaf, dentelles of applied gold leaf, inlays of reversed black and gold silk lamé, endpapers of sunago gold sprinkle on black Bugra Butten paper, head rough edge gilt, hand sewn black and white silk endbands with gold highlights. Housed in a black goatskin yapp edged chemise with sunago gold sprinkle sidings and a black goatskin entry étui (slipcase).

This commission was fortuitously timed. Having just been awarded a QEST (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust) scholarship to study continental fine binding techniques and this being a textbook on the art of French fine binding, it seemed only fitting to showcase all the techniques I had learnt over the scholarship on this binding. I took design elements from some of the finest binders of the hallowed French Art Deco: the use of coquille d’oeuf (eggshell) lacquer as seen on bindings by Francois Louis Schmied, the triple rows of dots were a motif much used by Pierre Legrain and the gold lame doublures were lifted directly from a Rose Adler binding. As part of my QEST scholarship, I learnt rough edge gilding from Julian Thomas, chemise/étui enclosure system from Luigi Castiglioni, hand tooling with gold leaf from Patrick Prouteau and insetting and inlaying from Hélène Jolis. I hope that the whole feels contemporary to the time it was bound in as much as to the time it honours.