Dutch book bindings

Together with the bindings on some medieval manuscripts and (post-)incunabula, the collection offers an excellent survey of the art of bookbinding in the Netherlands. Few styles, periods or binders are lacking. Some periods, however, are still under-exposed. With new acquisitions an attempt is made to provide for these deficiencies. A number of subcollections can be distinguished:

• Bindings with lozenge-shaped tools (ca. 1450-1530)
• Bindings with impressioned panels (ca. 1460-1550)
• Bindings from the early seventeenth century
• Bindings by Albert Magnus and his circle
• The eighteenth century
• Classicism and early neo-styles
• The period 1970-present
• Prize bindings

Typical Dutch bindings

Book binding, probably made about 1746, produced in red morocco partly stained and gold tooled. Made in a Hague bindery whose name is not known for certain - perhaps it involved a member of the Stofvoet family - and which has been nicknamed Eerste stadhouderlijke binderij (First Stadholder Bindery), because it worked for Willem IV. However, the binding, in spite of the lion in the centre of the covers, has no connection whatsoever with this stadtholder (on: Instructiën vanden Hove van Hollandt. Den Haag, 1650-1746. Shelf-number 136 D 6).

Bindings with lozenge-shaped tools

Bookbinding in brown calf over wooden boards, made by an unknown binder around 1530/1540, probably in the Northern Netherlands. The binding was tooled solely with lines and smaller hand stamps, the most important of which, in the central lozenges and triangles, were made especially for those places. At the top and bottom of the spine the binding has beautiful capitals of leather interweaving (on: "Libri historiarum rerum gestarum temporibus Karoli Septimi" by Amelgardus, presbyter of Liège, a manuscript dating from 1530/1540. Shelf-number 131 A 9).

Bindings with panel-shaped stamps

Bookbinding made of smoothly polished brown calf, blind tooled. The binding was made in the Low Countries, perhaps Holland, in the year 1497, by a binder whose name has not been passed down. The date can be found in the rectangular panel tooled in the middle of the covers, amidst hand-printed lines and various small tools. The date can also be found in the beautiful silver clasps (on: Book of hours with Utrecht calendar, a manuscript from the fourth quarter of the fifteenth century. Shelf-number 74 G 3). For a more detailed description see also: A hundred highlights from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek.

Bindings from the early seventeenth century

Book binding in whitish parchment with gold tools, made by an unknown binder, probably from the Hague, around 1600. The binding still has remainders of blue ties. In the centre of the covers is the coat of arms of prince Maurits, the son of William the Silent. The title of the book, too, has been tooled on the covers in gold. (on: Institution de la discipline militaire. Lijon, 1559. Shelf-number 137 B 1).

Bindings by Albert Magnus and his circle

Bookbinding in olive-green morocco, gold tooled, made in 1667 by the Amsterdam binder Albert Magnus (1642-1689), one of the most famous Dutch binders from the past. Magnus made this binding by order of the publisher Joseph Athias on a copy of the Hebrew Bible, which was presented by Athias to the States General - their coat of arms is placed in the middle of the binding. After this council was discontinued in 1795, their books ended up in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (on: Biblia Hebraica. Amsterdam, 1667. Shelf-number 142 D 19).

The eighteenth century

Book binding in olive-green morocco, made by the Hague binder Thomas van Os ca. 1775. On the covers a border has been embossed by means of lines, arches and very small hand stamps, which is entirely asymmetrical - for book bindings this is highly uncommon - and thus it belongs to the few genuinely baroque bindings produced in the Netherlands. The book was probably bound as it is by order of the author of the text, Frans Hemsterhuis, who often donated his books, bound in all conceivable ways, to friends and acquaintances (on: [Frans Hemsterhuis]. Lettre sur la sculpture. Amsterdam, 1769. Shelf-number 136 B 6).

Classicism and the early neo-styles

Book binding in red morocco inlaid with black, beige and lemon-yellow leather, stamped both blind and with gold, by the Amsterdam binder C.H.C. Wiedemann, 1825. The book-block here has not been sowed on ropes that can be seen as ribs on the spine, but on thin strings, which have been laid in kerfs in the spine of the book. The raisings are artificial ribs which the binder could apply at random intervals and in a breadth of his choice. In the period that this binding was made, there was a great demand for this possibility of variation (on: Biblia, id est Vetus et Novus Testamentum Malaïce. Haarlem, 1824. Shelf-number 139 E 1).

The period 1970-present

Book binding in parchment and brown goatskin, made in 1984 by Peter Schrijen (Limbricht) for a bookbinding contest held in that year. On the covers a "monster" has been drawn in ink, with long hairs out of which a variety of instruments are growing, and which are all related to the trade of manual book binding. The enclosed book, which all competitors had to bind in the contest, is a new edition of the oldest Dutch printed work on hand bookbinding (on: Hendrik de Haas. De boekbinder. Reissue. Amsterdam, Utrecht, 1984. Shelf-number 1771 E 108).

Prize bindings

Binding in parchment, stamped with gold, made c. 1775 by an unknown Utrecht book binder. Because of a conspicious stamp in his possession, which represents a picking parrot, but which happens not to be stamped on this binding, his workshop was called the Papegaaibinderij (Parrot bindery). The town arms stamped in the centre of the covers show that we are dealing with a prize binding from the Latin school in Zaltbommel. The original contents have onfortunately not been preserved. The binding now encloses a blank book block (shelf-number 145 A 26).