Gold-TooledBookbindings

AndContemporaryCollectables.1500 – 1800.

Chapter 8: Foliage, Flower andFruit Designs

By Ian Andrews

241

September 2013.ianandrews00@gmail.com

50, Wellhouse Lane, Mirfield

West Yorkshire WF14 0PN

Foliage, Flowers and Fruit

Leaves, flowers and plant-stems have been widely used in the

decorative arts since ancient times. Foliage in many forms

features on book covers through the three centuries covered in

this volume. In addition to the characteristic details of

their appearance, the arrangement, purpose and symbolic

significance of foliage leaves and other forms from nature are

of considerable interest, in addition to the degree of

naturalism or stylisation used in their design.

From Abstraction to Naturalism

The formulaic and regimented designs and starkly constructed

borders of the early sixteenth century included small,

individual, isolated leaf motifs. At this stage, the leaf was

employed more in the manner of a ‘printer’s mark,’ such as

that employed by the Italian printer, Aldus Manutius, rather

than as an essentially decorative element. During the second

quarter of the century, designs tended to become based on

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arabesques, and, in the period 1540-1560, leaves are often drawn

rather flamboyantly, in the ‘Fantasy’ style, but, still,

invariably, as individual motifs. While there is considerable

variation in their shapes and sizes, they exhibit remarkable

consistency in the small attributes and details of their

particular parts. It would seem that a limited number of basic

leaf shapes had become the accepted repertoire, and that

variations were the result of artistic licence on the part of

the designer or tool-cutter, in so far as it was permitted, to

suit their taste.

The range of leaf shapes that epitomise this ‘Fantasy’ style

would appear to have been adopted by Italian artists from

Arabic usage, since the entire range of their shapes is to be

seen in wall carvings in, for example, the Friday Mosque at

Isfahan, dating from the early fourteenth century. i In Europe,

this type of design first appeared on Italian bindings, then

French, ones of the 1530s. During the 1540s, while use of the

motif in both countries increased, French employment of it far

exceeded that of Italy, with the designs apparently being

copied from the leather-bound books that had been brought back

to France during les guerres d’Italie since there are apparently no

indications from that time of Italian craftsmen being active

in Paris.ii

After the middle of the third quarter of the sixteenth

century, the general trend was towards greater naturalism in

the representation of leaves, with stems or branches gradually

replacing the earlier arabesque spirals and scattered stylised

leaves. Naturalistic oak leaves are first apparent on bindings243

of the 1550s, with their popularity reaching a significant

peak around 1570. At this time they are seen on the same type

of gouge-work sprays as those with the most basic leaf motifs.

They remained in favour until the end of the century after

which they are not observed until just into the third quarter

of the seventeenth century when there was a second period of

popularity associated with the emergence of realistic plant

sprays. The quality of tool engraving by this date was so

superior to that of the earlier period that in some examples,

such as the English binding of 1673, number 11 in the Abbey

Collection, the complete vein structure of each leaf is

clearly defined whereas it was only hinted at on those of a

century earlier.

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Figure 1

A typical ‘fantasy leaf’ design of the mid-sixteenth century. The design iscontained within a border constructed from six endless loops. In the centre

is a cartouche with 3-d scrolls. Above and below the cartouche are a pair

of Arabic motifs having a fat lotus at their centre and capped with a pair

of lotus-scale leaves. At each corner, within the ribbon-work border, are

‘empty’ versions of the large scale leaf, a bat and, in solid gold, the

exaggerated leaf that is particularly characteristic of the Fantasy style.

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Figure 2

Representation des fetes donnees par la ville de Strasbourg pour la convalescence du roi, bound

in Paris in 1748. The leaves in this design are defined in such fine detail

that their veins appear to be visible.

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Figure 3

The binding design from Officia propria sanctorum….ad usum….parachialis ecclesiæ S.

Mariæin Vialata de Urbe, bound in Rome between 1765 and 1775. The acanthus

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foliage in this design is so luxuriant as to appear almost succulent and

shows the characteristic shape with three inward curling leaf sections.

Luxuriant W-Leaves are prominent in each corner.

Acanthus leaves

An example of how the representation of foliage evolved

through three centuries from highly stylised to more

naturalistic can be observed in the acanthus leaf. The

acanthus is a herbaceous plant that was portrayed in various

forms in Greek and Roman art. Although its leaf had been a

feature of manuscript illumination since the twelfth

century,iii it first appeared in the gold-tooled designs early

in the sixteenth on bindings from Venice, before spreading in

the second and third decades to Rome and Paris. Initially

simply a fleuron, its fully evolved, luxuriant form does not

finally appear until over a century later. Only at the very

end of the sixteenth century can the impressed forms of the

motif be described as anything other than highly stylised

abbreviations of a plant-form, partly because the leaf was

presented in profile. By extrapolating the appearance of the

leaf backwards from its more complete eighteenth-century form,

however, its major features can be discerned as a leafy stem

that spirals inwards towards its tip, and from which two or

more, lesser, leafy sections emerge from the lower stem,

following the same inward-curling profile. Its overall

appearance is not unlike a leafy, sea-shell spiral. By the

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1730s well-formed sprays of acanthus leaves are appearing, but

these do not exhibit the freedom and exuberance that were

apparent in the 1750s and 1760s.

Throughout this period of increasing naturalism, stylised

forms of leaves continue to appear, notably in the following

examples:

‘Horn’ and ‘Sickle’ Leaves

Slender, tapering volutes appear from around 1540 until late

in the first quarter of the seventeenth century, where they

serve much the same sort of ornamental purpose as flourishes

on manuscripts. In their most basic form, appearing like

Viking horns, they are seen decorating the corners of

strapwork compartments. On some bindings of the early

sixteenth century, these horn shapes are seen, usually in

pairs, and treated as if they were leaves. Cornucopeae and

Volutes, constructed as long tapering extensions of the

central pennate of ‘fantasy’ leaves may be observed on

bindings of the mid-sixteenth century, apparently with the

purpose of balancing the rest of the ribbon-work design.

Similar usage of long, pointed leaves that curve in a half-

moon shape occur in Turkish carpet designs, where they are

known as ‘sickle leaves.

Peacock Feather Leaves

Leaves of this type consist of a characteristic set of three

elongated loops that taper to a common point at their ‘root-

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end’. The central loop is always significantly longer than the

outer two, and usually scrolls into a ‘ball’ at its tip. It

usually appears as an isolated leaf with no additional

foliage. It is not observed very often and seemingly only on

English bindings from the 1660s to the early 1700s. In the

eighteenth century it is occasionally seen on stems, with the

central element tapering only to a point without rolling into

a ball. There are similarities between the shape of this motif

and that of Persian and other stylisations of the eyes in the

tail feathers of the peacockiv.

Figure 4. Foliar spray with ‘Oak Leaves’ from a binding ofthe 1670s.

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( see also Figure 18. )

Figure 5. AVenetian binding

of c1540 with

pairs of horn or

sickle leaves

at each corner.

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Figure 6. Peacock Feather leaves from an English binding of1702.

Drip Leaves

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A form of stylised leaf, known as the ‘drip leaf’ appeared in

the late 1660s, and has the characteristic appearance of a

drip of water or a ‘comma’. This leaf motif continued in use

until the middle of the eighteenth century, though most

examples date from around the turn of the seventeenth to

eighteenth centuries. They are usually impressed in solid gold

but

sometimes empty versions are seen. On some Scottish bindings a

particularly large form of drip leaf occurs which appears to

be a characteristic feature. Drip leaves are a particular

feature on designs of the Cottage Roof style.

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Figure 7 Drip leaves on gouge sprays on the cover of the Book of Common

Prayer, bound by Samual Mearne in London , c.1669

The Shapes of Stems

Stems are significant elements in the representation of

foliage and plant forms. The only real constraint on the

manner in which plant stems were depicted in gold-tooled

designs is the availability of appropriately shaped tools. Two

of the most basic tools for gold finishing are straight lines

and circular arcs, known as gouges. Repeated use of a single

leaf tool easily converts a line into a leafy stem,

facilitating the production of stylised, or semi-realistic,

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plant forms. A basic frond is made from a single curved line,

with leaf impressions along both sides, while simple plant

sprays consist of several linked impressions of a gouge, with

impressions of leaves judiciously placed around them. Stem

shapes of particular interest for interpreting designs on

bookbindings are individual gouge-work fronds, arabesques,

long undulating stems and long straight stems.

Individual gouge-work fronds

In designs of this style the leaves are minimal

representations, no more than barely defined citron shapes,

closely placed along a curving line. The resulting frond is

reminiscent of the palm fronds in Egyptian, Indian and early

Christian iconography, where it held some sacred significance.v

Numerous bindings of the late sixteenth and first quarter of

the seventeenth century are based on constructions of leafy

fronds. They usually consist of a large central lozenge

closely framed by four triangular corner-pieces, all of which

are densely infested with leafy fronds. Within this dense in-

fill, there appears to have been fairly minimal attempt to

arrange the gilt impressions in any kind of ordered manner, as

if the primary intention was to achieve a dense uniformity of

foliar coverage rather than the creation of a specific

pattern.vi Where the design is less densely filled, more

ordered arrangements of fronds are discernible.

Frond structures in the late sixteenth century occur as

corner-pieces and are rather more crudely tooled whereas in

the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, more lightly defined

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fronds are used to create the impression of trailing stems. In

later bindings, particularly, for example, some of the so-

called ‘Fanfare’ designs, gouge-work constructions in simple

spray arrangements are often found as space-filling

decoration, effectively employed to even out the appearance of

gold on the overall cover design. In some bindings of this

type, the foliage spray is clearly contrived to fit the

internal shape of the compartment and, to this end, even the

lengths of the leaves have been trimmed to size.

Figure 8 This scene from Sennofer’s tomb at Thebes shows Sennofer, keeper of the royal parks during the reign of Thuthmoses III seated amid

the Tree of Heaven whose fruits give the gods immortality. The stylistic

representation of the tree with its featureless frond-like branches laden

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with very basic-shape leaves is remarkably similar to the appearance of

frond sprays on gold-tooled bindings of the late sixteenth century.

Figure 9 Tenth-century Khmer carving from the tympanum at Banteai Srei,illustrating the use of frond-style, dense foliage as background and for

the representation of trees.

Designs involving arabesques

At its simplest, an arabesque is no more than a longer gouge.

Bindings of the early sixteenth century often include lotus

heads on stems that are more like half-circles or short-radius

curves. By the mid-century, foliage had become a primary

design element and long scrolling stems rolled right across

the entire design area. Compared with the very limited

occurrence of this form on bindings of the eighteenth century,

when it was quite crudely arranged in an attempt to replicate

the appearance of a particular pattern of lace, the arabesque

forms of the sixteenth century were very precisely laid out in

symmetrically balanced designs. The scrolling stems tend to be

of equal width throughout their length and to have occasional

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foliar motifs located at intervals around them. In particular,

one sees motifs placed over stems, as if they were threaded on

like beads, and leaves placed on the tip of a stem as it

terminates in a circular spiral, which had been a traditional

portrayal of the lotus.

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Figure 10. Thucydides, De Bello Peloponnesiaco, bound in Paris c1600.

The main panel of this very ornate, lacy design consists of four pyramids

of very carefully arranged miniature leafy fronds, each capped with a

pitcher motif and framed within a broad lacy saltirevii. The border

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consists of repetition of leafy ellipses in the style of the Order of St

Esprit.

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Figure 11. The centre panel of the binding of Officium Marie Virginis, bound

in Venice soon after 1619.

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The design is embellished with foliar sprays of two types: large gouge-work

constructions in the corners and smaller, intricate ones in the central

compartment. The stems of the gouge-work sprays have the tapering stems

which were a characteristic feature of the time, while close examination of

the small sprays reveals that they are considerably more naturalistic in

appearance than the larger ones.

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Figure 12. Allix P, Preparation for the Lord’s Supper bound in London 1688. A

cottage roof design with long undulating stems suspended from the tips of

the roof.viii

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Figure 13. A design in the Grotesque style by the French binder, Geoffroy

Tory, 1527.ix Based on wall paintings discovered during excavations of the

villas of the Roman emperors, these designs were developed around a series

of vertical axes in similar fashion to the use of straight stems in

eighteenth-century foliage designs.

Undulating Stems.

An undulating stem is a shallow, roughly-sinusoidal wave shape

of at least two full periods in length, long enough to be

obviously more than an accidental interpretation of gouge-

work, but ornamented with leaves in much the same way as a

simple frond. When discussing the decoration on a Korean

casket of the 12th-13th century,x which was covered with an

arrangement of long, undulating, drip-leaved fronds, Von Rague

used the very apt term, ‘Centipede Scrollwork’ to describe

them. As a decorative element, the undulating stem has been

observed, for example, as a swaying ‘vine’ in the subsidiary

border design of Kurdish weavers and in Turkish Koula prayer

rugs.xi

As a decorative element on bookbindings, however, undulating

leafy stems appear to be an exclusively English decorative

form, and are seen in goldwork from the 1630s onwards,

becoming particularly noticeable from around 1660 until the

turn of the century. During this period their appearance

changed quite significantly due to the use of different types

of leaf employed to adorn the stems. Until mid-century the

stems tend to appear with virtually no leaves. From 1650 to

1670 the leaves are of very basic shape, while after about

1670, two very distinctive forms are observed, one with drip,

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or tear-drop leaves and the other with quite naturalistic

‘oak’ leaves.

Straight Stems

The appearance of straight stems in designs is a feature of

the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Such

stems tend to be shorter than the undulating forms, normally

attached to some part of the design structure as a ‘root’, and

with some foliar motif at the tip such as a tulip, daisy or

berry. They are usually generously provided with leaves

frequently arranged in very regimented fashion and equally

spaced along the entire length. There are similarities between

the appearance of straight leafy stems in bookbinding designs

and those on other artforms such as Joseph Limosin’s enamel

ornaments of the earlier seventeenth centuryxii. Their

appearance on bookbinding designs most often gives the

impression that they are there to fill a space and have little

of the delicacy of the designs in the Roman grotesque-style.

Leafy straight stems proved a very convenient device for the

ornamentation of borders and other oblong spaces since they

could so easily be constructed to the requisite dimensions.

Flowers

Daisies

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The appearance of daisies on bookbindings has been especially

associated with women either as patrons or as recipients,

Marguerite d’Angouleme, Diane de Pointiers, Madame de

Pompadour and the wife and daughters of Louis XV, Adelaide,

Victoire, and Sophie. Cundall suggested that the introduction

of the daisy was a tribute to Margerite de Valois, daughter of

Henry II and that following the death of her brother, Henry

III, King of France, there was a general reaction against the

extreme gloominess of the book cover designs many of which

were based on the funereal designs demanded by the king during

the last years of his reign. Margerite de Valois had

considerable literary interests and was apparently very

involved in selecting the style of decoration on her books.

Her temperament was so totally different to her brother’s that

to please her, the French binders replaced the death’s heads

of Henry’s books with dainty and fantastic profusions of

flowers and foliage. Use of the motif increased very

significantly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

with two periods being of particular significance, 1650-90 and

1730-80.The first of these corresponded to the time of Oliver

Cromwell and the Restoration in England and the second to the

fashion climate in France.

The binding on a volume of Scuta Suprema, printed in 1656,

is surprisingly elaborate considering that it was a

presentation copy made for the puritan Lord Protector of

England, Oliver Cromwell, Figure 14. The deep scalloped lacy outer border is ornamented with twenty daisy heads, in

solid gold, and with a central panel in the style of the

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finest Venetian rose-point lace embellished with daisies,

tulips and lotus heads. The corner finials of a pomegranate

encircled with a leaf is superficially remarkably similar to

the crest that is seen on later books of Charles II. Since the

wearing of gold and silver laces, cuffs, fine collars and

‘show roses’ on their shoes was forbidden in Cromwell’s time,

the opulence of this cover seems out of keeping except that

when he died his body was prepared for burial in purple

velvets, ermine and the richest Flemish laces, more lavish, it

was said than for any dead king. As Earnshawxiii expressed it,

perhaps the truth was that, ‘he had no objection to wealth and

finery in themselves, only to other people possessing them’.

There are indications that the trend towards brighter bindings

had already begun before the Restoration.

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Daisies on bookbindings in the eighteenth century are more

often fully open and seen like a clock face, as in the border

of Figure

16, instead

of from the

side as were

those of the

seventeenth century.

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Figure 15. A Concert of Scripture by Broughton H, An English binding,

attributed to the late seventeenth century, in the Cottage

Roof style with a continuous daisy chain around the inner

panel and as a major motif of the outer border.

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Figure 16. Albion by John Theobald, bound in Oxford 1720. This garden design

is decorated with a variety of different types of plant forms in the

various beds. In particular tall plants with long straight stems are shown

in all the outermost beds. All the plants tooled in the inner beds have

been carefully contrived to fit and completely fill them.

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The Tulip

Tulip flowers appear in a considerable number of designs on

bookbindings. They are very specific and purely on the basis

of shape the tulip motif cannot be confused with the motifs

described as lotus. The tulip motif is observed on bindings of

the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the earliest known,

gold-tooled version being on a binding of c1660 belonging to

Oliver Cromwell, though tulips on embroidered bookbindings are

known from the last years of Charles I, 1635-40. xiv Large

tulip blooms, as a decorative motif on book covers appears to

be almost entirely an English usage though the five petal form

at least, is known on French bindings of the middle of the

eighteenth century. The vogue for tulips in the designs on

bookbindings in the seventeenth century appears to have been

centred around 1680 which coincidentally was the time of the

second Turkish onslaught on Vienna. Five-petal, open forms

tend to occur only before this date whereas the majority of

three-petal ones occur after. Tulips on simple fronds occur

after 1680 whereas those on stems of oak leaves were common

between around 1670 to 1690.

The tulip motif as it appears on bookbindings is nearly always

of similar shape to the modern flower, rather than the

exceptionally long, slender Turkish form seen on many of

Persian and Turkish decorationsxv of the mid-sixteenth

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century.xvi Apart from a few giant representations, some of

which are extraordinarily naturalistic, the tulip motif seems

to occur in one of two forms that are relatively consistent

throughout the period of its use: the closed form with three

indicated petals, occurring after about 1680, and the more

open form, with five petals, which came into use slightly

earlier. The motif is usually comparatively small, the three-

petal version tending to be smaller than the five-petal,

though some giant versions of the former are observed between

1682 and 1692xvii. In general, tulips on eighteenth century

bindings are very small and of the three-petal form.

Known and appreciated in Afghanistan and Anatolia since at

least the twelfth century, the tulip became popular in the

gardens of the sixteenth-century Ottoman Emperor, Suleiman the

Magnificent. He ordered tiles decorated with tulips to be

installed in the façade of the Dome of the Rock in

Jerusalem.xviii The Hapsburg ambassador to Constantinople, Ogier

de Busbeq, wrote in his diary in 1554 that he had been

overwhelmed by the sight of vast beds of tulip flowers in the

gardens of the Sultan’s palace in Turkey.xix Although many

other travellers from Europe had been able to see these beds

of tulip flowers, Busbeq was the first person permitted to

carry some of the bulbs out of the country, albeit at great

expense. On his return to Europe in 1562, he gave them to

Carolus Clusius, Director of the Royal Medicinal Garden in

Vienna, who was successful in propagating them. A significant

number of tulip bulbs must have been brought to England from

Vienna by the end of the century since, according to Hakluyt,

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“divers kinds of flowers called tulipas had been brought to

England in the late 1570s having been acquired from Clusius in

Vienna”xx and in Parkinson’s book, Paradisi in Sole, published in

1604, he was able to record the names of nearly eighty

varieties.xxi Clusius took the bulbs to Frankfurt and

ultimately to Holland where he was appointed Professor of

Botany at the University of Leiden in 1593.

When people saw his bulbs in flower the enthusiasm to purchase

enabled Carolus to charge high prices. Whereas in the 1620s

tulips were only to be seen in the gardens of the wealthy, by

1630 they were an essential symbol of social position. The

demand for bulbs grew to such a degree that by 1630, tulips

with especially favoured colourings, such as the famed Viceroy

with its violet streaks on pure white petals, is reputed to

have changed hands for 12 fat sheep, 4 fat oxen, 8 fat pigs, 2

loads of wheat, 4 loads of rye, 2 hogsheads of wine, 4 tons of

beer, 2 tons of butter, 1,000 pounds of cheese, a silver

drinking horn, a suit of clothes and a complete bed.xxii

Enthusiasm for tulips became a frenzy with seemingly certain

fortunes to be made merely by planting the bulbs and waiting

for them to grow. By 1635 tulips were being traded on the

London Exchange until quite suddenly in 1637 people were no

longer prepared to pay the inflated prices sought by the

merchants and the price bubble burstxxiii though Goldgar has

suggested that in reality only a comparatively small number of

people experienced significant losses, mostly from a

particular Protestant sect which was prominent in the Tulip

trade. Interest in tulips survived and some six hundred and

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fifty varieties were still being grown in Holland in the

1640s.xxiv In England the situation may have been less

obsessional than in Holland for Bacon, in an essay on gardens

published in 1625 provided a list of plants suitable for each

season of the year in which he included crocus, primrose,

anemones, tulippas and hyacinthus for the early spring. xxv

Despite records of Cromwell’s men vandalising country house

gardens such as that at Oatlands Hall, the Parliamentary

General Lambert, Lord of the Manor of Wimbledon, was a

gardening enthusiast and reputedly obtained ‘double striped

pomegranate’ tulips and other plants from merchants travelling

to Algiers and Constantinople. xxviThe Garden Book of Sir Thomas

Hanmer, c 1659, describes twenty-six types of tulip and

describes the show beds of his garden arranged in twelve ranks

with anemones along the sides, cyclamens at the corners and

tulips and narcissus in the middle. xxvii

The reign of the Ottoman Sultan, Ahmet III, from 1703 to 1730

was a time of great artistic and cultural activity known as

the Lâle mecmuasi, or ‘Tulip Period’. xxviii During this time

cultivation of the rarest and most exquisite varieties of the

tulip in Istanbul reached a climax comparable only with the

hysteria of the Dutch Tulip Mania of the seventeenth century.

Tulip festivals, at which the Sultan ordered tulip blooms to

be scattered over the floor, in the gardens of palaces and

pavilions on the Bosphorus were held to celebrate the arrival

of spring and Ottoman dignitaries competed furiously to

produce the most spectacular blooms.xxix As an indication of the

extent of international awareness and contact, Sultan Ahmet

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sent an ambassador, Mehmet Celebi, to France to investigate

western civilization and culture. On his return, western

clothes and costumes became not only acceptable but for the

first time, fashionable. xxx

Figure 17. English embroidered bookbinding on The Whole Book

of Psalms, bound in London c.1640 The flower heads are formed

around the full-height centre petal which is entirely

different to the way that lotus flowers appear.

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Figure 18. A very realistic, spotted, three-petal tulip froma Cottage Roof design on, Historicum, bound by Roger Bartlett in

1678. While the tulip flower appears accurately portrayed, it

appears to have been placed on a stem of oak leaves. Beneath

it, to each side, are a pair of five-petal tulip heads in the

more usual rather stylised form. When he used a similar design

on a copy of the, Holy Bible in 1685, both types of tulip have

been removed and the place occupied by the giant tulip

replaced with an ornate contrivance of eight drawer handle

motifs.

278

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Figure 19. A pair of tiles from the late sixteenth century,appearing like the tile panels in the Takyeci Ibrahim Ağa

Mosque built in 1592xxxi. The tulip flowers are ‘drawn’ with

three long, slender petals, the middle one of which divides

into two at its tip. Each petal is ornamented with a series of

coloured spots just as dots are often observed adorning the

tulip motifs on bookbindings.

Figure 20. A pair of giant-sized gold-tooled representations of tulips from a German ‘Prize Binding’ of the mid-eighteenth

century. Despite being supported on rather inappropriate plant

stems, the flower heads are extremely realistic.

Pomegranates

Pomegranates were considered a symbol of immortality and

fertility on account of the huge number of seeds they contain.

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They have been considered to represent Spain and it has been

claimed that the Christian church appropriated them as a

symbolic representation on the basis that the six hundred and

thirteen pips they contain was exactly the number of

commandments in the biblexxxii. It would appear that the

pomegranate was a popular motif for the decoration of fabrics

in the early sixteenth century. A portrait, published in 1510,

of the Albanian hero, George Castriota, known as, ‘Scander-

beg,’ shows him dressed in Venetian style, in a robe profusely

decorated with pomegranatesxxxiii

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Figure 21. A Swiss or German pewter water cistern of the sixteenth centuryxxxiv in the traditional style for representing a pomegranate, that

is with a single sector of peel removed to reveal the ripe pips inside.

The pomegranate is usually a rather small motif that occurs

quite commonly in the decoration on bookbindings, from the

very end of the sixteenth century peaking in usage during the

second half of the seventeenth and considerably in favour

throughout the eighteenth century. Two large pomegranates are

part of the decoration on the Wittinton Epigrams attributed to

1520 which is one of the earliest examples of the fruit

appearing in a bookbinding design. Six pomegranates are

amongst the main motifs in the border design on the Bible of

Charles Ixxxv. Large pomegranates occur in the 1740s as the

central medallion on a few English and French bindings

including a mosaic binding by Jacques-Antoine Derȏme, 1696-

1760 xxxvi Smaller pomegranates have significant prominence on,

Heures présentées à Madame la dauphine by Monnierxxxvii

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Figure 22. Heures Nouvelles, Contenant L’Office de Tous les Dimanches et

Festes de l’Annee. Paris 1745xxxviii. The design on this binding is a

centre and corners style with a

giant pomegranate at the centre and tulip flowers at the

corners. The date is established

by the foliar sinusoidal edging and the swag tails with kidney

shaped scallop shells in the extreme corner position.

Husk Chains and Bell Flowers

The flower element in chains of husks appears to be a very

small, trumpet-shaped bloom such as a harebell or bluebell

which when represented in two-dimensional form is effectively

reduced to a vertical section something like an upturned bell.

The way in which these husk chains are portrayed implies that

all the flowers would need to be threaded on a single stem

which is totally unlike any normal growth pattern. It does

however correspond with traditional mythological

interpretations of the appearance and growth structure of the

primeval lotus. It would appear likely therefore that the

chain of husks is a motif that was based on the Buddhist

perception of the lotus and also on account of the obvious

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similarity of shape, the bell flower seems to have similar

ancestry.xxxix

Figure 23. A section of a Chinoiserie binding made for theEmpress Maria Theresia 1746.xl Chains of husks drip from

designs of this style, each of which appear to be a string of

bell-flowers.

In terms of name, Comstock cited Singleton and Morse as having

both used the name, ‘Bellflower’ in their books of 1900 and

1902 for flower shapes of this form.xli On bindings of the mid-

sixteenth century it is typical to see bellflowers on leaf

cushions placed as central motifs within round curls which is

exactly the manner in which the lotus is used in Indian art

and a similar binding not only shows the bellflower in a

curling arabesque but also has larger ones placed on stems in

284

precisely the same way as the double form of the scale was

used in Indian art.xlii To what degree it might be valid to

assert therefore that a chain of husks is actually composed of

bellflowers though a little uncertain is nevertheless highly

tempting and appears justified.

Figure 24. A pair of scrolling arabesques from an Italianbinding of c1548 showing the manner in which the bell flower

was often used as a floral ornament at the centre of such

spiral devices. The bell flowers are supported on the same

three-leaf cushion as was used for lotus heads.

In terms of occurrence, bellflowers are to be seen, with

varying frequency, on bindings from the early sixteenth

285

century right through to the end of the eighteenth.

Indications are that they were in more common use around the

mid-sixteenth, mid-seventeenth and for most of the eighteenth

centuries. Around 1780 chains of husks, garlands and baubles

were quite often used to define scalloped edging around deep

borders.

The bellflower was employed by Robert Adam, who was reputedly

captivated after seeing it in wall decorations at Pompeii, but

equally it had already been used by Raphael in his designs for

the Loggia at the Vatican. Its origin as a floral motif poses

an interesting question since it has become a very elegant

stylisation of a flower head but stylised almost to the point

of abstraction. In this aspect it has similarities with the

vase or bottle motif. Both are drawn by a single line and in

the majority of cases, they are used in precisely the same way

as the traditional usage of the lotus scale. As a flower head,

the bellflower is too stylised to be employed with foliage and

does not stand alone as a complete motif. Where it is used as

a discrete motif in book cover designs, it tends to be

carefully placed as a feature in much the same way as

derivatives from the lotus scale might be employed.

286

Figure 25. Historie, Paulo Orosio bound in Rome c1545.xliii A

binding in the style described on the basis of the central

Apollo and Pegasus medallion. The centre panel of this design

has four large bellflowers as corner pieces.

287

288

References.

Adnitt A. (1998) The Istanbul Tulip, Christie’s Magazine, May p 70-71.

Andrews W. (1904) Funeral Garlands The Antiquary vol XL p146-150.

Anon. (1948)Legend of the Sacred Palm, Apollo Feb. p 44-6.

Arts of Islam Exhibition Catalogue held at the Hayward Gallery, London April to July 1976 pub The Arts Council of Great Britain 1976.p29

Baker P.L. (1995) Islamic Textiles, British Museum Press. P70-71 and86.

Bosch F.D.K. The Golden Germ: An Introduction to Indian Symbolism.Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt New Delhi 1994Fig 3c p24-5.

Brown K. (2000) Bulbs for All Seasons, Anness Publishing Ltd. London p 8-9.

Busbequius, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbequius: for full details of the publications of Busbequius, see the Catalogue of the sale of the library of Henry Myron Blackmer II, Sothebys London, 13th October 1989 particularly items 48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,111 and 112.

Christie A.H. (1969) Pattern Design, Dover Publications.Figs 153,154 & 230 and plate XXII.

Comstock H. (1955) Antiques August p130-33.

Cundall J (1881) Bookbindings Ancient and Modern,George Bell & Sons,London. p 65-6.

289

De Bars Fabienne. Cited by Fox R. and Turner A. eds. Luxury Trades and Consumerism in Ancien Regime Paris, Ashgate, Aldershot, 1998 p 266-7.

De Voragine J. (1948) Legend of the Sacred Palm Apollo, Feb p44-46.

Devaux Y.

Grotesque Dictionary of Art p 699-701.

Dorling Kindersley (1998) Eyewitness Travel Guide to Istanbul, Dorling Kindersley, London. p24-5.

Dupont-Auberville M. ( ) Classic Textile Designs

Earnshaw P. (1981) Lace in Fashion from the 16th to the 20th Centuries. Batsford, London.

Ferrier R.W. (1989) The Arts of Persia Yale University Press, New Haven and London. see particularly fig 9 on p 308.

Fisher J. ( 1989 ) The Origins of Garden Plants Constable, London. p 144.

Foot M ( ) The Broxbourne Library p73

Foot M p22 1749 Parisian binding.

Garber P.M. (1989) Tulipmania, J. of Political Economy, vol 97 No 3.

Gloag J. (1968) English Furniture in the French Taste. Part II. The last third of the eighteenth century. Antiques Oct. p 586-93.

Goldgar A. (2007) Tulipmania: Money, Honor and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age. University of Chicago Press.

Gorely J. The Pineapple: Symbol of Hospitality, Antiques, vol 48 No 1 July p1-3.

Greene R.L. (1977) Fertility Symbols on the Hadley Chests, Antiques August p250-57.

290

Heaton H.A. (From Lotus to Anthemion: From Frog to Zigzag, The Antiquary, vol XXXVII p359-363.

Heslop T.A. (….) Dunstanus Archiepicopus and painting in Kent around 1120.The Burlington Magazine vol CXXVI No 973 April 19…. P 195-204.

Hillenbrand R. (1999) Islamic Art and Architecture, Thames & Hudson, London p38-40 and 198-208.

Hughe(?) R. (1958 ) Larousse Encyclopaedia of Byzantine and Medieval Art p191

Jacobson D. (1993) Chinoiserie, Phaidon Press, London, p134-5.

Maggs Catalogue of fig/pl 156 158.

Maggs Catalogue fig 229 p 173 1745.

Miner D. (1958) Chinoiseries in Leather, Antiques, January p70.

Morris B. J. (1957a) English Printed Textiles: Copperplate Chinoiseries, Antiques April p360-63.

Morris B.J.(1957b) English Printed Textiles IV: Copperplate Bird Designs, Antiques, June p556-59.

Nixon H.M.(a) (1960) Grolier’s Binders: Notes on the Paris Exhibition II, The Book Collector, vol 9 no 2 p165-70.

Nixon H.M.(b) (1967) English Bookbindings LXIII: A Cambridge Binding by Ed. Moore, c 1748. The Book Collector vol 16 no 4p480-1

Nixon H.M.(c) ( ) Sixteen Centuries of Gold Tooled Bookbindings. P241-43.

Nixon H.M. (1974) English Restoration Bookbindings London

Nixon H.M. and Foot M.M. (1992) History of Decorated Bookbinding in England. Claredon Press, Oxford.

Nuseibeh S. and Grabar O. (1996) The Dome of the Rock, Thames and Hudson, London. p 42.

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Paludan A. (1998) Chronicles of the Chinese Emperors, Thames & Hudson, New York & London. p 200.

Petsopoulos Y. (1982) ed. Tulips, Arabesques and Turbans: Decorative Arts from the Ottoman Empire. Abbeville Press, New York.

Quaritch B.

Rawson J. (1984) Chinese Ornament: the lotus and the dragon. London.

Rice D. Talbot (1965) Constantinople – Byzantine Istanbul, Elek Books, London. p 192-98.

Thomas G.Z. (1961) Cane: A Tropical Transplant, Antiques, p ? -94

Trivick Monumental Brass……………………

Von Rague (1976) Artibus Asiae vol 39 p130.

Vincent C. (1994) Some Limoges Enamel Ornaments for Horse Tackle. Apollo Jan 1994 p 29.

Ward-Jackson P. ( )

Wittockiana, (1996) Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Credit Communal, Brussels.

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Anon. Lacquerwork in Asia and Beyond. Art in Asia no. 11 p 190 University of London. 1981.

292

i Ferrier R W, The Arts of Persia, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1989 fig 9 p 308.ii Fabienne de Bars cited by Fox R and Turner A eds. Luxury Trades and Consumerismin Ancien Regime

Paris, Aldershot , Hants, UK 1998 p 266-7.iii Heslop 12thC ???iv Wave, D, Illustrated Dictionary of Ornament, …………………….. p 164.v De Voragne J, The Legend of the Sacred Palm, Apollo Feb 1948 p 44-6. Palm fronds became a Christian emblem associated particularly with Easter. Though considered ‘sacred’ the Council of Trent deemed it appropriate to ban it in 1563. If entirely a coincidence it is curious that the period when bookbinding designs included dense thickets of leafy fronds, which could have been a means for disguising the sacred palm, was from the early 1560s until the end of the century. Designs of this type are included in the chapter on Garden designs. vi Quaritchvii Christie’s Catalogue for a Sale of Printed Books and Manuscripts, Wednesday 3 June 1998, Lot 83 p 98-9.viii Maggs Cat BBs Historical and Decorative No 152 plate LXXV. ix The Art of French Books p150.x

xi Delabère May C J, How to Identify Persian Rugs: A Textbook for Collectors and Students, Bell & Sons, London 1920 p 91-95.xii Vincentxiii Earnshaw P Lace & Cromwellxiv Maggsxv Christie, Petsopoulosxvi Christie, Petsopoulosxvii 1683 was the date of the second Turkish onslaught on Vienna.xviii Nuseibeh and Grabar xix Busbequiusxx Bakerxxi Rice xxii Brownxxiii Garberxxiv Brown p 9xxv Fisher p50. xxvi Fisher p102.xxvii Fisher p103.xxviii Bakerxxix Adnittxxx Dorlingxxxi Tulips, Arabesques and Turbans plate 96.xxxii 613 pome pips???xxxiii Thomas A G, Great Books and Book Collectors, Chancellor Press London 1975 p60xxxiv Vetter R M, Swiss and German Pewter Water Cisterns and Lavabo Sets, Antiques, May 1966 p690-94. xxxv Grannis Ruth, Jewelled and Embroidered Bookbindings at the Grolier Club, The Bulletin of the Needle and Bobbin Club, 1920 vol 4 xxxvi Thomas p 83. Foot p22. Maggs p173

xxxvii Wittockiana p 54.xxxviii Catalogue No 489, Bookbindings Historical and Decorative, Maggs Bros, London 1927 No229 p 171.xxxix Bosche pl 60 particularly (f), where 60 (e) is the characteristic leaf shape.xl Egger G, Viennese Bookbindings, Apollo Vol LIII No 315 May 1951 p 120-23.xli Comstock ??? Ref Tulip Chest paper. She also reported that ‘bellflower’ was considered to be the American name for the motif for which the English call, ‘husk’.xlii This usage of the bellflower may be seen on a Roman binding of Breiarium Praedicatorum for Pope Pius V c1566, item 46 in Nixon (c). Plate 73, c1557, of The Broxbourne Library by Foot.xliii Nixon H M, Sixteen Centuries of Gold-Tooled Bookbindings in the PierrepontMorgan Library, No 11

p 39-44