Roger Payne and his Art

1892

No call number

New York: De Vinne Press

William Loring Andrews considered Roger Payne to be the ‘founder of a purely English style of decoration for the covers of books’. He certainly had a unique style preferring to use red, blue, green or olive morocco, purple endpapers and tall green endbands. He finished his books with elaborate designs composed of mainly flower and leaf motifs interspersed with dots and stars, which he referred to in his bills as ‘studded Work’. The cover of the Bible (pictured above), in blue morocco, is an excellent example of his work and the volume was especially bound by Roger Payne for his friend and benefactor, Thomas Payne and includes Thomas’s initials. Roger died unmarried and penniless on 20th November, 1797 and having been supported financially by Thomas in the last years of his life, was buried at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, at Thomas’s expense.