Bookbinding in the British Isles: Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century. Part II

1987

Special Collections Z270 G7 M558 1987

London: Maggs Bros.

This four volume set of Horace’s works was bound in green morocco by Roger Payne. The cover decoration includes a central coat of arms (probably added later), four gilt corner rosettes flanked by ‘leafy stems’ consisting of straight fillets and laurel leaves. The seven-panelled spine has four ‘title’ panels and three elaborately decorated panels which include lyre, lily and primrose tool imprints. In his bill for binding these volumes Roger Payne comments that ‘The finishing of the gold work is superior to any I have done for lustre and correctness’ and is executed with the ‘greatest care’. His bookbinding skills are evident in his extant bindings despite, by his own admission, his inability ‘to stand to work’ pain-free for a great deal of his life, probably caused or exacerbated by his frequent insobriety.