Bookbindings

Dutch Eighteenth-Century Bookbindings

Early 2005 the long-anticipated handbook on eighteenth-century Dutch bindings, by Dr. J. Storm van Leeuwen, will appear. This publication will make a significant contribution to Dutch book history. This publications was the incentive for digitising all of KB's bookbindings in the coming years. A first selection will be made from the most beautiful bindings in the collection and bindings from the eighteenth century. KB and the British Library, where a bookbinding website is in place since end of 2002, will be working together on this joint project to make bindings from both collections accessible for all.

First Stadholder Bindery, The Hague, c. 1736. Binding in red morocco, gold tooled; two pairs of green ties. Content: [Blank album to insert prints and drawings]. Broadsheet.

In the eighteenth century the Dutch binding flourished. Many bindings from this century belong to the best that have ever been created in our country. The quality is equal to what was produced elsewhere and falls short only of the best French works. Unlike in France, which was strongly centralised, with Paris as the uncontested centre of the art of bookbinding, in the Netherlands luxury bindings were manufactured in many towns.

As to the quality and originality, Amsterdam, The Hague and Middelburg took pride of place, as to numbers, the former two towns came first. But other trading centres such as Rotterdam had their own importance, as well as the university towns of Leiden, Utrecht, Groningen, Harderwijk and Franeker, and a predominantly regional centre such as Leeuwarden, while also in smaller towns such as Zutphen, Delft, Breda, and Maastricht bindings were made with a certain degree of refinement. The art of bookbinding mirrors to an important extent the decentralization in the Dutch Republic

Several reasons can be given for the florescence of bookbinding in the eighteenth century. One is the comparative freedom of the press, which ensured that a lot more was published than was to be expected of such a small country. Dilettantism caused a passion for book collecting in large sections of society, often at a high level, accompanied by a demand for luxury bindings for special items. The growing demand of the middle classes during this period for the embellishment of, especially, the interior of their houses, may also have contributed. The widespread usage amongst scholars, clergymen and men of letters to present a person of distinction with a copy of their work, in the hope of an appropriate reward, caused the manufacturing of many of these gift bindings. Another cause was the even more widespread custom of the many Latin schools in the Republic to present outstanding pupils at the biennial promotion to the next class with books that were bound in prize bindings especially made for the occasion. Finally the thriving Dutch auction system ensured the distribution of many books bound in our country across the entire known world of those days.

Unusual binding, Amsterdam, c. 1745. Blank vellum binding, painted pink, light brown and bright green, tooled in gold.

In Dutch Eighteenth-Century Book Bindings, Storm van Leeuwen gives an overview of the towns where luxury bindings were manufactured, bookbinder's workshops and binderies, and he brings up-to-date what has formerly been published on the subject. He discusses all the above mentioned aspects, as well as per town the approximately 200 different binderies where bindings were manufactured with a certain degree of refinement, most of which have unfortunately remained anonymous. The extensive historical introduction is accompanied by a catalogue of the approximately 2000 relevant bindings in the collections of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (the National Library of the Netherlands) and its sister institution, the Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum. The circa 1300 bindings that the author studied over time in other collections are also discussed, be it more briefly. The more than 8000 stamps on these bindings are all represented by a picture, arranged according to bindery and the most important ones also according to representation. Never before have so many bindings been described and discussed in such detail, with the benefit of an established model and established terminology.

Romberg Bindery, Amsterdam, c. 1737. Fore-edge painting depicting the prophet Jeremiah watching the rod of an almond tree descending from heaven. The binding is in brown Russia, gold tooled. Content: Biblia, Dat is, De Gantsche H. Schriftuure... Amsterdam, Jacob Lindenberg, 1702. Fol.

Dutch eighteenth-century bindings can be found anywhere in the world. The work in hand will be of use to everybody worldwide with an interest in Dutch books or bindings, and also to art and cultural historians with multidisciplinary interests. The intended audience includes bookbinding historians, book historians, bookbinders, restorers, cultural and art historians, and anybody else who is interested in bindings.