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~ Bird prints ~

19th century hand-coloured bird print by F.O. Morris

19th century
hand-coloured prints
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~ Turbayne peacock binding ~

Albert Angus Turbayne Macmillan Peacock Binding

HEADLONG HALL AND NIGHTMARE ABBEY

By Thomas Love Peacock

Book design by Albert Angus Turbayne, a master of art nouveau book design. This example is cited in many bibliographies on art nouveau bindings!!!.

One of the most important and beautiful Art Nouveau bookbinding designs ever brought to the late Victorian /Art Nouveau period!!

Bibliographies of the Art Nouveau / Pre-Raphaelite period use this book as the epitomy of the book craft of that period.

Collectors of Posters and Maitres De L'Affiche etc have seen images of this in reference works, but most have never seen an original in its shining book form, except in private collections.

Few were issued in this rare art nouveau form, and most that are seen today are in poor condition... This one is very good!!

Famous among his contemporaries, and known principally for the ‘Peacock edition’ produced by Macmillan and Co. in the 1890s, particalary the edition of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice. Turbayne was hailed by critics as a ‘genius.

Published by Macmillan and Co, London, 1896. First Edition. Hardback, 8vo, stunning decorative covers by Albert Angus Turbayne. Blue cloth with a high, bright gilt peacock binding design. A very rare volume indeed with no other copies available anywhere at the time of listing this Turbayne peacock binding. A real collectors item. Most in private collections or universities and art institutes.

A chance in a million to own a copy in this condition!!

CONDITION
In very good condition. The cloth binding remains is good condition (see images provided). Endpapers good and all contents present. Little yellowing to title page and to the tissue gaurd that protects the frontispiece. For a full condition report please ask. Very good condition!

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PRICE : £300 + (£4.20 Shipping Charge)

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Albert Angus Turbayne (1866–1940) was one of the most distinguished binding designers of the final decade of the nineteenth century, and worked in several styles. Some of his commissions took the form of elaborately tooled bindings in leather which were directed at the expensive tastes, while others, and those which have still have currency, were trade bindings for the modest (or middle-class) pocket.

Often linked to the Art and Crafts designs of William Morris, and credited as one of those who sought to improve public taste by promoting work of the highest quality, he is also viewed as a sophisticated proponent of Art Nouveau, whose bindings bear comparison with those of Laurence Housman and Charles Ricketts. Framed by Morris’s Kelmscott Press and the extravagance of Aubrey Beardsley, Turbayne occupies a complex position within the discourse of Victorian book design.

Famous among his contemporaries, and known principally for the ‘Peacock edition’ produced by Macmillan and Co. in the 1890s, Turbayne was hailed by critics as a ‘genius’ (J.S.R., p. 213). H. Orrinsmith, the art director of Burns and Co., described him in 1898 as a designer of exceptional ability, praising his bindings as those which ‘come nearest to perfection’ (Haslam, p.73). Other eulogies followed. Favourable reviews appeared in The Artist and The Sketch, The Inland Printer, The Art Journal and elsewhere, and his name was featured a selling point in advertisements for each new publication. This was an important development in a period when binding designers were mainly anonymous, and Turbayne’s achievements were promoted on both sides of the Atlantic. Impressive when placed on the shelf, it is quite likely that his books were purchased for the beauty of his covers rather than their contents; working within a long Victorian tradition, Turbayne’s editions were objects to be seen, not read, a fact attested by the unusually good condition of most of the surviving copies.

~ Featured ~

A leather onlay for Mervyn Peake's Alice
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~ Dutch Onlay ~

Example of Baz's
leather onlay work
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The Gently Mad : 2 Summer Place, Edinburgh, EH3 5NR : 0131 261 6028 / 07702592972