d
paper sides for his old plays, but the conduct of the whole process
under the owner's roof, as in the case of Robert Southey, whose first
wife attired many of her husband's books in cotton raiment, and led
him to speak of them as his Cottonian library; or, nearer to us, in
that of Sir Edward Sullivan, who devotes himself to the finishing
stages of any volumes belonging to friends or otherwise, when the
article has been "forwarded" in an ordinary workshop. Sir Edward
tools, gilds, decorates, and letters, and subscribes or inscribes
himself _E. S. Aurifex_. Specimens of his handicraft occur fairly
often in the market; as to their merit, opinions differ. But after
all, there is a _soupcon_ of gratification in having a Baronet to your
binder; and we understand that Sir Edward is complaisant enough to
accept commissions outside his personal acquaintance.

A second essayist in the same way, who has become almost a member of
the vocation, is Cobden Sanderson, who bound several books of ordinary
character and moderate value for William Morris, and whose merit, if
the prices realised for the lots in the auction be any sort of a
criterion, must be extremely high. The present writer and many others
carefully examined the volumes, and failed to see any justification
for the enthusiasm awakened in at least two competitors.

Specimens occur also now and then in the market of the beautiful
morocco bindings executed by another and (as some think) superior
amateur, Mrs. Prideaux. A copy of Arnold's edition of Wordsworth's
_Select Poems_, 1893, bound by this lady in Levant morocco, with
elaborate gold tooling on back and sides--only one small octavo
volume--is priced in a catalogue of 1898 at L12, 12s.

The Parisian differs from us islanders in these particulars _toto
caelo_. There is an utter and hopeless incompatibility. His
predilection is for morocco _in genere_; he estimates it not only
above russia (_calf_ is hardly in his dictionary), but above even the
choicest vellum encasement to be procured or conceived; but on
_maroquin rouge dentelle_ or _aux petits fers_ from some
pre-revolutionary workshop he is hobbyhorsical to a pathetic extent.

The most celebrated French binders are carefully enumerated by the
latest authorities in their chronological order, but there is a
difficulty in respect to many of them analogous to that encountered by
the inquirer on English ground, since the names of several even of the
best period are