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257 256
258. POWELL, Roger (Binder). SELIGMAN, Germain. Merchants of Art. 1880-1960. Eighty Years of Professional Collecting New York. Appleton-Century Crofts Inc. 1961.
£4500
256. PICKERING. [PRAYER BOOK]. The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments & other Rites & Ceremonies of the Church according to the Use of the Church of England; Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, Pointed as they are to be Sung or Said in the Churches: And the Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. William Pickering [printed by C. Whittingham]. 1844.
£998
Folio. Recent sprinkled and panelled calf, spine ruled in gilt and with two maroon morocco labels, top edges gilt, others untrimmed; title-page printed in red and black and with a fine wood-engraved border, text throughout printed in red and black in gothic letter and with initials and ornaments in imitation of the early editions, the ornaments engraved by Mary Byfield after designs by J.A. Montagu; occasional foxing, but a nice copy of this handsome Prayer Book.
The fine title-page is illustrated in Ruari McLean’s Victorian Book Design & Colour Printing (p.15), where this edition is described along with the other folio Prayer Books published by Pickering in 1844: “All these were printed by Whittingham, and it is safe to say that, even if the conception was Pickering’s, the execution and typographic design in detail were the printer’s; these Prayer Books were, perhaps, the crowning achievement of that great collaboration.”
Keynes p.86. Griffiths p.304-5.
257. PICKERING. PRAYER BOOK. The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments … Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David …Bickers and Bush. 1863.
£698
Large 12mo., in publisher’s full brown morocco, with elaborate gilt line panels enclosing gilt fleur-de-lys, tudor roses, and crowned ER initials, and with onlay panels reprising the woodcut borders within the book; all edges red under gilt; title-page printed in red and black within a woodcut border representing the Tree of Jesse, woodcut portrait of Queen Elizabeth on verso of title, wood-engraved borders throughout by Mary Byfield; first and final leaves foxed, otherwise a very nice copy.
William Pickering’s reprint of Queen Elizabeth’s Book of Christian Prayers 1569, first appeared in 1853, with this Bickers and Bush imprint appearing 10 years later in its elaborate publisher’s binding. The woodcut borders are finely engraved by Mary Byfield after designs by Holbein, Durer, etc., and printed by C. Whittingham. “The cuts harmonize perfectly with the type (which is Caslon) and this small volume is a triumph of printing as well as of illustration and typography.” (McLean, Victorian Book Design).
Keynes p. 86 for the Pickering edition.
8vo., finely bound by Roger Powell in 1964 in full brown morocco with a vertical panel of gilt and blind linear decoration with black morocco inlays lettered with the title, all edges gilt, with quarter morocco chemise and slipcase.
A fine Roger Powell binding that was exhibited in London at the Arts Council, 1965, no.48. With a handwritten note by Powell tipped in at the rear describing the binding and the materials used.
From the library of the collector Major John Roland Abbey with his
bookplate. Abbey
commissioned Powell to bind various books and we believe this was one such commission. He also commission bindings from Sybil Pye and from Roger de Coverley & Sons.
In 1930 Roger Powell began training as a bookbinder at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. After he completed the course he opened his own bindery, then became a partner with Sandy Cockerell in the major bindery of Cockerell & Son in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. He also taught part-time at the Central School until 1943, when he moved to the Royal College of Art, where he taught until his retirement in 1956. There he was succeeded by his best pupil Peter Waters.
Powell left Cockerell & Son in 1947 and again set up his own bindery in Froxfield, Hampshire. Here he did some of his most notable work, including the rebinding of the Book of Kells in 1953 and work on many other important historical manuscripts. He and Peter Waters became partners in the Froxfield firm, working together until Waters emigrated to the United States in 1971. Aided by the design talents of Peter’s wife, calligrapher Sheila Waters, this partnership produced some of the most masterful and acclaimed collector designer bindings of the mid-20th century. They worked on the conservation of the many books and manuscripts damaged in the Florence flood of 1966. Powell was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1976.
Fellow binder and collector Bernard Middleton described Powell as “one of the most important and influential bookbinders of the last hundred years and, arguably, of any period”.
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