Bookbinding

Description

Bookbinding of embossed leather with spine entitled 'Rossetti' and front cover decorated with an angel's head and words 'La passion qui consacre': Scottish, Edinburgh, by Phoebe Traquair, 1897

Museum reference

A.1989.192

Collection

Decorative and Applied Art

Object name

Bookbinding

Production information

Traquair, Phoebe Anna, 1852 - 1936
Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, Northern Europe

Date

1897

Materials

Leather, Paper

Physical description

The front cover is decorated in shallow relief with an almost symmetrical composition based on the head of an angel. The angel’s hair flows almost horizontally in front of the lower part of its halo and partly overlaps its curved wings, which have parallel visions. The angel is wearing a simple round-necked shirt with a central front fastening. In front of the angel’s shoulders are two large decorative motifs. They consist of a ‘ring’ with scales and a flower and scrolling leaf. The flowers are represented in profile and face one another. The arrangement is symmetrical but there are minor differences in detail. Above the angel’s head are five stylised flowers and the words ‘La passion qui’. Below the angel and the two decorative motifs is the word ‘consacre’. The spine is entitled ‘ROSSETTI’ in raised letters. The punched background does not seem to have been completed around the last three letters. The back cover is decorated with a central vertical rectangle containing an almost symmetrical representation of a stylised iris or lily with leaves. Above the left-hand corner of the rectangle is a medallion containing a grotesque seated animal with human arms and feet, in profile, facing right. Above the right-hand corner is a grotesque bird, in profile, walking to the left. Below the left-hand corner of the rectangle is a medallion containing Phoebe Traquair’s monogram, PAT, and, below the right-hand corner, another medallion containing the date 1897. The binding is on combined copies of two publications. First, F G Stephens, ‘Dante Gabriel Rossetti’ and secondly Alfred W Pollard’s, ‘Italian Book Illustrations’. These were published in the Portfolio series of monographs on artistic subjects, edited by P G Hamerton, by Seeley & Co Ltd, Essex Street, Strand, London, at half a crown an issue. Stephens’ ‘Rossetti’ was No.5, published in May 1894, while Pollard’s ‘Italian Book Illustrations’ was No. 12, published in December 1894. A note in pencil on the reverse of the first page reads ‘not for sale’ and is underlined.

Associations

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 1828 - 1882

Exhibitions

• Design for Living (08 Jul 2016)
  National Museum of Scotland

On display

national museum of scotland »
level 5 »
art, design and fashion, design for living