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Australian Bookbinders and Bookbinding
of the Nineteenth Century

Carol Mills

(This is a work in progress. Later work may reveal
gaps or inaccuracies not currently apparent.)

INTRODUCTION

Our first binder was working in Sydney as early as 1796. Almost certainly he was a convict. Even when the NSW Government Printing Office was established in 1840, the staff consisted of three free tradesmen, twenty convicts and some boys.

The first bookbinder whose name we know is Thomas Broughton, alias William Smith, who arrived in 1799 aged 19, on a seven year sentence. He was working as a binder in the Commissariat office by 1803, and by 1811 he was a 'dealer' at Windsor.

The first bookbinder in Melbourne was perhaps George Cooper, who was working at the Port Phillip Patriot office in 1842. In South Australia, when the Adelaide Register changed hands in 1840 the staff included two binders.

In the Australian colonies, the demand for bookbinding would have been slow to develop. The population, which began in 1788 with 859 in Sydney, for a long time was less than that of a European provincial town in each colony. Much of the early population, being convicts, or engaged in practical pursuits, would not have had a lifestyle which encouraged book ownership.

Ex-convict William Moffitt (1802-1874), a Liverpool trained binder who commenced business in 1830 as a printer, bookbinder, stationer, engraver and bookseller was the first commercial binder of significance. Among his customers was David Scott Mitchell's father. Moffitt's business continues today, having first passed to Thomas Yeo in 1874, when there were six bookbinding staff. WC Penfold bought the business in 1886.

In 1838 Henry Dowling of Launceston published in parts his unauthorised edition of Pickwick papers, then in 1839 with the addition of plates, bound or in sheets for binding. 1 It seems that the undistinguished brown moiré cloth binding on some copies is Dowling's. Ferguson reports that the green cloth boards variant was local. 2

John Pownceby of Melbourne advertised in 1874 as having begun in 1862. There were two binders named Pownceby in Australia; John in Melbourne and T Pownceby of Newtown in Sydney. There was a London bookbinder John Pownceby working from the late eighteenth century until at least the 1840s. One is tempted to think that a practice found in the book trades, of the younger generation opening in the colonies, using their contacts for supplies, etc, may be operating.

Waugh's Australian almanac 1858. featured a lengthy advertisement by Jas W Waugh, describing himself as a bookseller, stationer and account book manufacturer. Of bookbinding he says:

This is carried on, on the Premises and having the most experienced Workmen he is able to appeal to the work that has been already executed for his numerous customers, in support of its superiority and general style of execution. All kinds are carried on, including Books, Music, Illustrated News, periodicals, Gazettes, Newspapers, &c., &c. ACCOUNT BOOKS have received the largest share of his attention...(p.1)

FROM THE BEGINNING

Binding skills were originally immigrant. Training by apprenticeship, formal or otherwise followed. Trades training away from the workplace began about the beginning of the twentieth century. Examples of the second generation of binders are Charles Harwood, originally a convict, trained by Moffitt, later in business for himself in Sydney for at least twenty years, and the Wrigleys, who arrived in Melbourne as children in the 1850s, worked for Detmold, and for themselves in the 1870s and 1880s.

By the second half of the nineteenth century, we find a gradual separation of specialised book trades into freestanding businesses. The emergence was slow and incomplete. The association of binding with related trades makes it difficult to determine who were the BOOK binders. The emphasis of advertisments sometimes provides a clue. John L Sherriff, of Sydney, in The Australian almanac for the year 1874 advertises himself as 'bookseller, stationer and publisher', although stating 'JLS gives his attention to the following branches of business:- Bookselling, publishing, binding, printing, engraving and lithographing, picture framing, account book manufacturing' (p37). In A glance at Australia in 1880 by Mortimer Franklyn (Melbourne, 1881) Maddock advertises himself as, 'importer of books and stationery', listing bookbinding in a long list of services provided. Bookseller George Robertson of Melbourne's new premises were described by the Bookseller in 1872 as having a bindery for the manufacture of account books. 3 Without the ledger trade, in particular, it is dubious if the competence to be found in much nineteenth century Australian binding would have been possible. From stickers we know that Robertson bound books, presumably for customers, and his own publications. Even binders working independently offered services such as the manufacture of account books or fancy boxes.

William Detmold (1828-1884) of Melbourne, who began in 1854, was an important bookbinder. Hannover-born, Detmold is believed to have trained in New York, where he lived from 1846 until 1852.

As well as Detmold, Tanner's Melbourne directory for 1859. (Melbourne, John Tanner) lists Cook & Fox, E. Esquilant and T.J. Walters. The publication itself, bound in khaki coloured buckram with a blind embossed rectangular cover design, gilt lettering on the front cover and a blank spine, is a publisher's binding with Detmold's sticker on the endpapers.

W. Detmold, Bookbinder, paper Ruler, and Manufacturer of Account Books, In acknowledging the liberal patronage he has received from the Victorian Public, desires to inform them that, to his already extensive Bookbinding Establishment he has added all the latest improvements in machinery, by the aid of which, and by careful attention, he is enabled to execute orders with increased promptitude, in a more SUPERIOR AND FINISHED STYLE than hitherto, and at REDUCED PRICES; and ventures to hope for a continuance of the support which he has hitherto been honoured. W. Detmold is employed by all the Leading Houses, the Clergy and Gentry, as well as the Public Library, University, and most other Libraries in the Colony. 163, Swanston street, Melbourne.

A considerable proportion of the binding carried out in Australia was probably publisher's binding, of Australian books. When you look at Victoria's postage rates to Europe in 1859, it is easy to see that sending books abroad for binding was expensive. Some book buyers and booksellers imported books in sheet form, having them bound when they arrived, although almost certainly books were ordered by collectors such as Stenhouse and later Way to be bound before being shipped. Holgate, writes in the 1880s of library purchases from the UK; '... the books come out from England, well, even beautifully bound ...'. 4

GOVERNMENT PRINTERS

In the later nineteenth century the government printers were setting standards in competence and creativity. Many books bound by nineteenth century government printers are in styles which would have been expensive to commission commercially; sometimes on books which private collectors would not have valued. The practice of providing individuals such as governors and members of parliament with specially bound copies of government publications continues.

The colonial born Thomas Richards (1831-96), succeeded William Hanson as NSW Government Printer in 1859, having started as an apprentice printer there in 1845, becoming Superintendent by 1859. The Bookbinding Branch was established in 1859. His office proved to be well to the fore in the production of quality bindings for government agencies and for exhibitions from the 1870s on. Perhaps this was due to the influence of Augustus F Furber who was his Foreman of Binders from 1860 until about 1886. To judge from the accolades which Richards received for binding, Furber must have been a good worker and a good teacher..

The Victorian Government Printing Office began in 1851. Until 1887 the government printer was John Ferres (1818-98), a printer from Bath, born into a printing family. A book binding section was added in 1854. There is evidence that prior to this binding was jobbed out. The Queensland Government Printer from 1867 to 1893 was James C Beal. The well-regarded Sydney designer-binder of the 1920s and 1930s, Wal Taylor, worked there before World War 1.

We learn a lot about the NSW Government Printing Office Bookbinding Branch from the Legislative Assembly's 1871 Select Committee on the Government Printing Office. In 1870, the staff totalled 162, with 26 of these engaged in binding. For comparison, 50 were compositors. Binding was headed by an overseer and sub-overseer. Of the men, twelve were tradesmen or 'improvers' (finished apprenticeship, but no vacancy as yet for them to apply for), plus seven women.

The Branch carried out work for all government departments, the Parliament and the Free Public Library. A question from the Chairman, still asked in our time, with the same answer, that some of the work could be done at the Gaol, elicited this reply from Richards: 'I have already objected to having work done there.' (question 130)

Outside witnesses were called. One was Francis Cunninghame, a Sydney commercial printer of many years' experience, who stated that he carried out bookbinding. Cunninghame states that he could not afford the wages paid to the Government printer's binding overseer, in the face of competition. (Q808 p1163) Richards' rejoinder was, 'I do not think Mr. Cunninghame does any bookbinding properly so called; he may do.' (Q2276 p1219). Richards states that the wages paid are needed to retain the men, the clear implication being that they were superior to the staff of Cunninghame. (Q2276-80 p1219).

George Robertson would have agreed with the state of commercial binding. Writing to M.J. Vale of Bathurst of the experiences of Angus and Robertson when they first began to publish in the 1890s he wrote:

Printers and binders in Sydney knew nothing of bookwork when we started to publish, they have greatly improved under our guidance and we hope that after further experience, when workmen and girls have become more expert, the cost of production will be brought down much closer to the English. 5

Only one allegation of malpractice was attached to Branch work. In giving evidence, a discontented former staff member, R.A. Taylor, alleged that '... some binding was done for a gentleman, who was once a member of Parliament-books not belonging to the Parliamentary Library.' (Q1170 p1179) In answer to the next question he stated that it involved 'A small hand-cart full' (Q1171 p1180) for a Mr John Lucas, this being based on Taylor's opening the books and reading the name inside (Q1172 p 1180), and their being not of the usual character which the Branch handled. (1173 p1180) Richards later claims that this is untrue (footnote reel 37 p1216).

Richards states, in answer to other questions that the bulk was mainly in 'rough sheep or calf' for government departments (Q258 p145) and Votes and Proceedings' (259), and states that, 'books for official purposes ... are never bound elegantly, although they are always bound strongly' (261).

In the Report on the Government Printing establishment (1862) for Victoria of 1859-61, Ferres reports very favourably on the 'proficiency, general aptitude, and attention' of his binding staff. In the case of one of Ferres' publications, the R Brough Smyth, The goldfields and mineral districts of Victoria (1869). This was covered in red grained cloth, with a blind embossed rectangular design on the covers, gilt lettering and blind rules on the spine, and a fine gilt design of a man working a windlass on the cover, with small (4 leaf) gatherings, and many tipped-in plates. Answers to Parliamentary questions tell us that the 644 page book was sold for 15/6d. The total cost of production was 16/3; of this, 2/5 was spent on binding. 6

THE EXHIBITIONS

Separation of craft and commercial binding came with the rise of mechanisation. The binding exhibits at international exhibitions which occurred around the world in the second half of the nineteenth century were showplaces for binders' work and for the new technology. The first of these, the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park in 1851 had an exhibit from Dowling of Launceston and two exhibits from bookseller George Rolwegan of Hobart:

196. Rolwegan, Collins Street, Hobart Town. Book, in one volume, printed and published in Van Diemen's Land, bound in colonial calf, gilt and lettered with gold leaf manufactured in Hobart Town from Californian gold. 7

345. Books and bookbinding; papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land volume the 1st. Printed by Messrs. Best, bound by Mr. Rolwegan, ... Bound in colonial calf-skins, tanned and dressed by Mr. Reeves. Gilt and lettered with gold leaf, manufactured from Californian gold, by Mr. R.V. Hood, Collins Street, Hobart Town. 8

Hood also exhibited gold leaf and gold-beater's skins independently. As well there were skins prepared by Thomas Hall & Co of NSW (later Hall & Alderson, then Alderson & Sons) and skins from J.G. Reeves of Hobart Town, who was the tanner of the 'colonial calf' used by Rolwegan, and from Thomas Button of Launceston. 9

J. Cox and Co of Sydney won a medal for binding work at the Paris Exhibition of 1855. 10 William Detmold received an award at the Exposition Universelle, at Paris in 1878; the only Victorian exhibitor to do so, although in other classes there were other successful Victorian awards, including John Ferres. 11

Richards received a First Order of Merit in Sydney in 1879. In his exhibit was a fine binding in maroon 'morocco super-extra', with heavy gilt tooling and gilded edges (Notes on the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879). Full and half law calf, lettered cloth, morocco extra, morocco and half morocco, morocco elegant and velvet with silver mountings are the materials mentioned as used by Richards.

At the Melbourne exhibition of 1880 Thomas Richards received a special medal for his bookbinding exhibit. First prizes went to Richards and to Detmold and Highly Commended awards to Jerrems and to ST Leigh, and a prize to J.C. Beal the Queensland Government Printer for album binding by an apprentice. Honourable Mentions were awarded to the SA Government Printer and to the South Australian Commission. George Short of Sydney received a Commendation for his binding with india rubber backing, which may explain the flexible spine which he demonstrated in the Melbourne exhibition the following year. The judges were unstinting in their praise of Richards:

... particular excellence in the hand-tool work, chasteness of design, and execution. ... particular attention is deserved by the first-class workmanship in ... the binding of the 'N.S.W. Statutes', the specimen volumes of which are unapproached by any other exhibit brought to the notice of the judges.
... the productions of the Government Printing Office of New South Wales are a model of excellence, which remain unsurpassed by anything in the Garden Palace. 12

William Detmold won a First Order of Merit for bookbinding, in a class of nineteen Victorian exhibitors, the judges commenting that, 'The ordinary bookbinding consisted of elegant editions of popular works, upon which high-class work, all executed by hand, was displayed.' 13

In Class 10, Stationery, Book-binding we find three New South Wales exhibitors of interest to binding history: 'rough and smooth calf, Kangaroo, Goat, and Sheep; coloured Roan; Morocco, mock Russian hides, and scarlet lettering Moroccos' from Alderson and Sons of Sydney (founded 1844). CHS Jerrems of Sydney received a Third. 14 Queensland Government Printer, J.C. Beal received a Second for library binding. There was an entry from the South Australian Government Printer, E. Spiller and from James Williams of Adelaide who received a Second, and several entries from Aikenhead and Button of Launceston. C.G. Roeszler of Melbourne was another, displaying bookbinders' tools and blocks. 15 On at least one occasion, in 1873, Roeszler's stamps appeared on a book bearing George Robertson's binding sticker as, 'bookbinder's tool cutter, die sinker and general engraver.'

Some of the exhibitors in Melbourne, and in Sydney the year before, were European bookbinders. Only a few commercial binders such as Detmold, seem likely to have been competent to accept design work, so this interest in attracting Australian collectors is not surprising.

John Ferres won several awards at the Calcutta International exhibition of 1883-84 for his collective exhibit of printing and binding. 16 At the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition held at Dunedin 1889-90 both the NSW and Victorian government printers and Detmold won first awards. 17 At the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, NSW was an active exhibitor. It seems as if bookbinding was among the exhibits, but the report does not describe the exhibits. 18

MATERIALS

Until much more recently, all skins, cloth, paper, boards, gold leaf, headbands, thread, tapes, cords, paste and even glue were imported. Even where we know that Australian materials were available, we do not know to what extent they were employed by binders. In rough percentage terms, the pre-1901 Australian-printed works at CSU are covered in cloth 55%, half leather with cloth 20%, leather 6.4%, half leather with paper 9.3%. Quarter leather with paper, quarter leather with cloth, quarter buckram with paper, buckram and paper make up the balance.

LEATHER
The common forms were:

* Goat; Morocco; Levant (the most esteemed - natural and crushed),
Turkey, unspecified and imitation.
*Cow; Calf and Russia
* Sheep; basil, roan and skivers

Understanding the leathers of the time is difficult. Their breakdown through age, and the cheaper imitations using inferior skins which were used by some binders make recognition even more difficult in all but obvious cases. Skins (and probably glue, about which we know very little) were probably the first materials to be prepared locally. The fact that at the end of the century bookbinders' skins remained exempt from duty in most colonies, and continuing advertisements by British tanners are a fair guide to local availability.

PUBLISHERS CLOTH ET AL
Almost all Australian publishing took place after the invention of book cloth, which came into use in England about 1823. Like leather, cloth was nearly always exempt from duty, indicating that there was no significant local supply, as does the frequency of local advertising by British firms such as Dewhurst, 'Manufacturers and Sole patentees of Sagar's patent bookbinders' cloth' 19 and Winterbottom.

BOARDS & PAPER
We know, that there was local paper from 1818 to 1826, and continuously from the late 1860s No doubt the old binder's practice of selling waste paper to paper mills could have fostered a relationship between binders and paper makers. In Europe the greater availability of machine-made paper by about 1850 had led to longer print runs and more titles published. In Australia shortage of paper probably influenced book production. It took the success of Australian experiments in the twentieth century with hardwood pulp, rather than the softwoods of Europe and North America, to improve our paper supply. Our success with using hardwood pulp we are now having to live with in the exploitation of Australian forests by the rest of the world. The boards which can be seen through worn coverings are mill board, or occasionally the less satisfactory straw board.

LETTERING AND EDGE GILDING
In most colonies gold beaters' skins remained exempt from duty. After the 1850s gold leaf itself became subject to duty. William Evett of Melbourne was a gold and silver beater by the 1870s, exhibiting internationally. Some quite early Australian books have gilt edges. It is specialised work. Even in later nineteenth century London, edge-gilding in that much larger centre was largely by one firm. 20

TOOLS & MACHINERY

TOOLS
Tool makers are not common, but several appear, such as J. Pain of Richmond, Victoria in 1876 and L. Jaubert of Sydney in 1880. The earliest maker in Australia whom I have come across is Alfred Flack of Sydney, who advertises several times in the Australian almanac. In 1859 as a, 'Bookbinder's tool cutter, &c. at Mr. Conyber's, bookbinder'. Flack advertises in his own right in 1869 and 1870, as a die sinker and engraver, but still specifically mentioning bookbinders' tools.

In 1871 Chas C Roeszler, Bookbinders' tool maker and engraver appears. Roeszler highlights himself as 'Bookbinders' tool and block cutter, ... Manufacturer of ... Embossing Presses ... C.G.R. has always on hand a large stock of new and secondhand bookbinders' tools, rolls and sundries. Repairs of every description ...'. His advertisements are decorated with engravings of his machines and tools. From 1891-1896 we find him as 'Bookbinders' tool cutter, die sinker, brass plate and general engraver, rubber stamp maker &c. ... steam works.

MACHINERY
In the nineteenth century machinery was added to the tools and simple wooden screw presses with which binders had worked in the past. Casing, which made cloth covered books cheaper, was introduced in the period 1825-30. By the late 1820's, embossing of the cloth-covered boards with a 'fly-embossing' press, producing designs on cloth covers which simulated the tooling of hand binding, had become possible. The ability to letter cloth in gold came after 1832. In 1878 David Smythe launched the first sewing machine. In 1879 a case making machine became available. In 1859-61 the Binding Branch of the Victorian Government Printer had 2 cutting machines, a rolling machine, 2 mill-board cutters, a paging machine, an arming press for blocking boards, and five presses. Some of these were driven by steam power. Much was new, and was represented as saving manual labour, and speeding up work.

From the 1880s advertisements in Australian publications for British manufacturers featuring arming presses, driven by steam or hand; backing machines and saw benches; hydraulic and screw presses, quire folding machines (by then steam driven), sewing presses, finishing presses, stabbing machines, sewing machines for wire and. August Brehmer of London says in Sands Melbourne Directory for 1889, 'This directory is sewn by my machine.' James Waugh in 1861 felt that his new hydraulic press was important enough to publicise, seeing it as furthering the quality of his work to '...a par with the best manufactories in London'. 21

It is likely that some technological developments followed Australian exhibitors home after they attended nineteenth century international exhibitions, which highlighted new inventions and technology. Obviously technology had not permeated very far in the 1890s, when George Robertson (of A & R) wrote to his agent, Pentland;

In order to turn 150 copies per day out the binders have got to go at it from 8 a.m. till 10 p.m. 22

and in another instance was advising Cole's Book Arcade of Melbourne that publication of a work would be delayed until sufficient copies for first orders were completed. 23

BINDINGS

Dating bindings can be difficult. Dating by appearance, technique and materials used in Australian bindings can be misleading, as a binder might employ techniques learnt before coming to Australia, and materials of varying ages or provenance. Further clues come from the date of imprint, or information on a binder's sticker.

Most binders were from the British Isles. The perception of the desirability of the British standard, is shown in a review in Stockwhip of Roberts' manual of fashionable dancing and vade mecum for the ballroom, published by George Robertson in 1875, and presumably bound by him:

... There is one feature about the book that is deserving of high praise-the style in which it is got up ...The binding and lettering would do credit to any English house. 24

PUBLISHER'S BINDING

Much of the binding done in Australia was publisher's binding. The distinction between binding and florid casing was becoming blurred. D.M. Angus, of Angus and Robertson, made a flamboyant demonstration of the difference in Court in the 1890s on behalf of the defendants in a case where the publishers of Australian men of mark, advertised as being bound in half morocco, were suing purchasers who had not paid for their copies:

... holding a volume of Men of Mark by the covers he gave it a shake, and out fell the inside and all the men of mark therein. 'That ... is what is known as a "cased book" unless it has been properly stitched into its covers'. 25

The story of this publication is a saga in itself. No doubt the biographees, who were the majority of potential purchasers, were having second thoughts. The defendants argued that Men of Mark was not bound; they lost. The copy held in the Carnegie Collection was bound by Detmold. It is a florid production, half red morocco, half red embossed cloth, gilt and black decorative lettering and decorations on the covers and on the leather edges, gilt lettering and decoration on the spine, and gilt edged.

It was in 1847 that the first Victorian book appeared; Thomas M'Combie's Australian sketches. Then came several titles by James Bonwick, then in 1858 a second by M'Combie, his History of Victoria. This work was published by Sands and Kenny, and printed by WH Williams. It was in an embossed purple cloth, with a rectangular design stamped in blind on both covers, and gilt lettering and blind rules on the spine. It was octavo size with mauve endpapers, and rather small gatherings of 4 leaves.

A publisher's binding typical of its period and intended purchasers with an sad history was Adam Lindsay Gordon's Ashtaroth; a dramatic lyric, printed and published in 1867 by Clarson, Massina and Company in Melbourne. We do not know who the binder was. Its binding was green moiré cloth, with a stamped rectangular blind design on the covers, gilt lettering on the front and a blind design on the back cover, and gilt lettering and blind rules on the spine. The gatherings were the common ones of eight leaves. It was an elaborate production, which shared the fate of many literary ventures initiated by their authors-its 500 copies did not sell, exacerbating Gordon's problems with debt.

Mason & Firth advertise in the context that they practise binding, stressing, like Waugh in 1858, 'patent flexible backs, of novel construction, and are warranted to open perfectly flat'. Sutherland in Victoria and its metropolis describes M'Carron, Bird & Co (the publishers of this work, presumably its binders) in 1888 as engaging in, as well as printing , 'the cognate branches of ... and bookbinding'. 26

WOMEN

Women worked in binderies from early times as 'folder and sewers'. It was probably because binding involves sewing, that we find women in the workforce in a 'respectable' job relatively early. Indeed, I have heard of an industrial case in Australia from a later date, where male binders were claiming that they should be paid more than women, as they had to learn the skills of sewing, which in women were innate; I have not been able to trace this case.

In the early twentieth century we hear of women not as sewers, but as craft binders, both privately and commercially. Margaret Chapman (?-c1945) of the Craftsman Bindery in Melbourne (and later of Sassafras) receives a number of fulsome mentions in the periodical Book Lover in 1906 and 1907. Chapman, with Dorothy Wilson, learnt her craft from Tasmanian-born Mrs Francis Knight, a well-known binder in London and Paris, who established a bindery in Melbourne for about two years from 1902, with the objective of teaching 'gentlewomen' the craft. She had limited success. By 1907 Chapman was advertising for pupils. In 1906, founder of the Arts and Crafts Guild in NSW, Dorothy Wilson was writing about bookbinding, illustrating the article with her own work, in the first Australian periodical dedicated to the arts, Art and architecture. 27

The Arts and Crafts Guild of NSW was founded in 1906, holding its first exhibition in April 1908. Its exhibitors included binders Wilson, Ethel Stevens and Sarah Yeomans. The principal contribution of the Arts and Crafts Movement to Australian binding seems to have been its adoption of Australian motifs, particularly floral motifs, into decorative art. Many bindings of the early twentieth century employ the distinctive shapes of gum leaves, in particular, but also flannel flowers, christmas bells and waratahs, in their designs.

WOMEN'S WORK EXHIBITION

The First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work, a massive undertaking, was held in Melbourne's Exhibition Building in the latter half of 1907. Chapman won two of the four binding classes, for a book bound in morocco or vellum (hand-tooled) and for limp binding (calf or morocco or Russian leather), and a second prize for vellum binding. Library binding prizes went to J.H. Good (SA) first and Mrs B. Lacy (WA) second. In a class for an Australian book (printed and hand bound in Australia). Chapman's prize-winning entries were described as:

... bound in dark brown, with side borders of ... eucalyptus leaves in dark green. The second prize volume utilises a similar bordering across the top and bottom, and is self-coloured in dark green. The design is characterised by refinement and restraint. 28

The limp volume is now in the National Gallery of Victoria. The spine lettering reads 'Australian verse; 1907'. 29 Other entrants were B.A.E. Wylly (Vic), Miss Olive Burt (WA), Zella Southon (Tas), Maud Gainge (Vic) and Millicent Mitchell (Vic). Amateur entrants not in the catalogue of whom we learn from the press include Miss M.C. Joachim (NSW), Miss E. Ursula Holden (Tas) and Dorothy Wilson (NSW). There is press comment on a heraldic binding by Mrs C.B. Craig of Toowoomba in the leatherwork class. In addition there were three exhibits contributed by Australian women abroad; Mrs Francis Knight, Miss R Vigers and G Edwards.

DECLINE

John J Troy, in a 1925 article, 'The bookbindings of Wal. Taylor' says: 'We must be thankful that the modern binder is content to receive less than a rabbit-trapper and almost as much as a Cremorne gardener'. 30 Even so, binding was beyond ordinary collectors, and collectors were coming to prize the original condition of the publisher's binding. Nixon and Foot, speaking of Riviere, Zaehnsdorf and Sangorski and Sutcliffe, carrying on between the wars with reduced staffs, state, '... the new fashion for original condition among English and American collectors hit them cruelly.' 31

Craft binding has re-emerged in popularity in Australia since the 1980s, with hundreds of individuals doing their own work, and more professionals in the field. The commissioning of craft and design work remains only part of the stimulus to create attractive bindings, with only a small element in Australia willing to pay for the time, creativity and skill required for design binding. Other work is created on the initiative of the binder or of his employer.

NOTES

  1. Barrett, Across the years; the lure of early Australian books, N.W. Seward, 1948, p.59. return
  2. J. Ferguson, 'The Tasmanian "Pickwick Papers"', RAHS Journal and Proceedings , v.3 1918. p.320. return
  3. J. Holroyd, George Robertson of Melbourne 1825-1898; pioneer bookseller & publisher, Melbourne, 1968, p.41. return
  4. C.W. Holgate, An account of the chief libraries of Australia and Tasmania, London, Chiswick Pr, 1886, p.37. return
  5. Angus & Robertson papers, ML MSS 75/5. p.204. return
  6. T. Cavenagh, 'The Victorian Government Printer and early scientific publishing in Victoria: Ferdinand von Mueller, the Royal Society and R. Brough Smythe', Riverina Library Review, 5:4, Nov 1988, p.272. return
  7. The Great Exhibition of world's industry held in London in 1851, v.2 p.996. return
  8. ibid, p.999. return
  9. ibid, p.995, item 135. return
  10. J. Holroyd, 'Some genuine Australiana', Biblionews, December 1977, p.56. return
  11. International exhibition at Paris 1878. Report of the Commissioners for Victoria to His Excellency the Governor, Melbourne, Government Printer, 1879. return
  12. Sydney International Exhibition 1879. Special medals to exhibitors, Sydney, 1879. p.263-264. return
  13. Melbourne international exhibition, 1880. Official record, Melbourne, 1882. p.36. return
  14. Melbourne international exhibition. NSW court catalogue, p.33. return
  15. Melbourne international exhibition, 1880., op cit., p.42. return
  16. ibid., p.57. return
  17. New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, Dunedin 1889-90, Official record, p.285. return
  18. Report of the Executive Commissioner for New South Wales to the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893, Sydney, 1894. return
  19. British & Foreign Trade Directory, Sands Sydney 1889, Sands Victoria 1892. return
  20. Howard M. Nixon and Mirjam M. Foot, The history of decorated bookbinding in England, Oxford, Clarendon, 1992, p.107. return
  21. Stranger's guide to Sydney , Sydney, 1861, adverts p.1. return
  22. Angus & Robertson papers, ML MSS 3269 75/3, p.118. return
  23. Angus & Robertson papers, ML MSS 3269 75/4, p.348. return
  24. Stockwhip. 19 June 1875, v.1, p.272. return
  25. W. Stone, 'Old-time book-canvassers and an Act of Parliament', Biblionews, January 1961, p.2. return
  26. G. Sutherland, Victoria and its metropolis, v.2, Melbourne, M'Carron, Bird, 1888, p.569. return
  27. D.E. Wilson, 'Bookbinding, illustrated with examples of the authors handicraft', Art and architecture, 1906, p.153-156. return
  28. Weekly times. 9 November 1907, p.20. return
  29. Joan Kerr, ed. Heritage, the national women's art book, Sydney, 1995, p.16. return
  30. John J. Troy, 'The bookbindings of Wal. Taylor', Art in Australia, 3:12, June 1925 [4pp.]. return

    31. Howard M Nixon and Mirjam M Foot, op.cit., p.113. return


© Copyright 1996 Carol Mills, 13 James Street, Kooringal, NSW 2650, Australia.

Tel (069) 26 2626 Fax (069) 33-2900 e-mail cmills@csu.edu.au

Carol Mills is Director of the Wagga Campus Library, Charles Sturt University. She has published on aspects of Australian descriptive and enumerative bibliography, including The New South Wales Bookstall as a publisher (Canberra, 1991). She is preparing contributions to the History of the Book in Australia on the New South Wales Bookstall Company, the history of papermaking in Australia, and the history of bookbinding in Australia.

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Last Updated : 29 September 1998