Here is another instance of the increased value of a copy of a book bound by a good binder. A copy of Montaigne, Essais, 3 vols. 8vo (Amst.: Elzevir, 1659), bound in red morocco double by Deseuil, brought £200, while another copy, bound by Roger Payne in red morocco, only sold for £12, 10s.
A small duodecimo volume bound by Deseuil (Longus, Les Amours Pastorales de Daphnis et Chloe, Paris, 1788) was sold at G. Daniel’s sale in 1864 for £92.
Monnier. Decor Puellarum (Venetia: N. Jenson, 1471). Girardot de Prefond’s copy, a magnificent specimen of Monnier’s binding, in blue morocco, ornamented with flowers worked on variegated leathers, and stamped in gold.
Beckford (1883), £530.
—— De l’Imitation de Jesus Christ traduction nouvelle (Paris, 1690). Large paper. Citron morocco, magnificent specimen of Monnier’s binding.
Beckford (1882), £356.
—— Corneille, Rodogune. Au Nord [Versailles], 1760. Madame de Pompadour’s own copy, printed under her eyes in a northern apartment of the Palace of Versailles, in yellow morocco; fine specimen of Monnier’s binding.
Beckford (1882), £325.
It has hitherto been the fine French and Italian bindings that have fetched the high prices, but now some of the beautiful English bindings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are coming in for their share of consideration. At the Earl of Orford’s sale (1895) R. Wood’s “Essay on Homer” (1785), bound by Roger Payne by order of Wood’s widow for