The Grolier
binding was notable for the elegant finish of its interlaced ornaments
in gold-leaf, a delicacy of touch, and an inimitable flowing grace, which
modern binders have struggled after in vain. At the Beckford Library sale
in London, in 1884, there was a great array of fine French bindings of
early date. A book from Grolier's library, the "Toison d'Or," 1563,
brought L405, or over $2,000, and a Heptameron, which had belonged to
Louis XIV, in beautiful brown morocco, with crown, fleur-de-lys, a stag,
a cock, and stars, as ornaments, all exquisitely worked in gold, lined
with vellum, was sold for L400. Following the Grolier patterns, came
another highly decorative style, by the French binders, which was notable
for the very delicate gold tooling, covering the whole sides of the book
with exquisite scroll-work, and branches of laurel.

The most celebrated of English book-binders was Roger Payne, who was
notable for the careful labor bestowed on the forwarding and finishing of
his books, specimens of which are still reckoned among the
_chefs-d'oeuvre_ of the art. His favorite style was a roughly-grained red
morocco, always full-bound, and he kept in view what many binders forget,
that the leather is the main thing in a finely executed binding, not to
be overlaid by too much gilding and decoration. He charged twelve guineas
each (over $60) for binding some small volumes in his best style. Payne's
most notable successors have been Lewis, Hayday, Bedford, and Zaehnsdorf,
the latter of whom is the author of a treatise on book-binding. At the
art exhibition of 1862, a book bound by Bedford was exhibited, which took
two months merely to finish, and the binding cost forty guineas; and a
Dore's Dante, exquisitely bound by Zaehnsdorf, in Grolier style, cost one
hundred guineas.

A decorative treatment not yet mentioned is applied to the covers of some
books, which are bound in elegant full calf. To give to this leather the
elegant finish known as "tree-calf binding", it is first washed with
glaire or albumen. The boards of the book are then bent to a convex
shape, and water sprinkled over, until it runs down from the centre in
many little branches or rivulets. While running, a solution of copperas
is sprinkled on, and carried along the branches which radiate from the
central trunk, producing the dark-mottled colored effect which resembles,
more or less nearly, a tree with its spreading branches.

To make the book beautifu