[ALBUM]

[A very fine early 18th-century album in a spectacular red morocco gilt binding]

[England: circa 1730]. Oblong folio. (15 1/8 x 16 7/8 inches). 94 leaves of blue-grey laid paper.

English red morocco, covers panelled in gilt with double-fillet outer border and triple-fillet inner border with cornerpieces of stylized flowers and foliage, spine in seven compartments with raised bands, the first, third, fifth and seventh compartments with overall decoration made up from a stylized foliage roll tool, the second, fourth and sixth compartments with repeat decoration including drawer-handle tools, flowerheads and cornerpieces of stylized foliage, comb-marbled endpapers, gilt edges

A very fine early eighteenth-century blank album in richly gilt red morocco, with blue-grey laid paper, prepared for the mounting of prints and drawings or for a personal commonplace book.

A notably luxurious blank album, made for the use of a private owner rather than for a specific text, and typical of the early eighteenth-century taste for presentation bindings on stationery, albums, and commonplace books. Red morocco, prized for both durability and brilliance of colour, was a favoured leather for high-style gilt binding in this period, and blank books in such bindings were commissioned for personal projects that ranged from travel journals and commonplacing to the mounting of prints, drawings, or cut papers. Tinted papers, especially those tending toward blue, were long used as a support for drawings, offering a mid-tone that allows highlights and shadows to read with particular clarity, and blue paper remained widely used by draughtsmen in the eighteenth century in both England and France. Such paper also provides a sympathetic ground for mounted studies and for the arrangement of prints and drawings, while still serving perfectly for ink or pencil notes. The present album sits alongside the broader eighteenth-century culture of compilation and collecting, in which owners assembled personal books of material gathered over time, whether autographs and verses in friendship albums, extracts and memoranda in commonplace books, or visual collections arranged from purchased prints and drawings. The binding's scale and finish, together with the substantial leaves of tinted laid paper, indicate an object made to be kept, handled, and added to over years.

Item #17334

Price: $13,500.00