Binding

Albert Henry Warren; unsigned

1858

Green cloth with a gilt design

8¼ x 6 inches

This elegant rustic casing is unsigned, but is almost certainly by Albert Henry Warren. The fluid interlace of radiating vines is one of the signature characteristics of his style. Used to bind Willmott’s observations on nature and country life, it prepares the viewer for the book’s contents and provides a visual link with Birket Foster’s rustic illustrations. The overall effect is unusually coherent for a book of the period, creating a strong sense of harmonious complementarity between the outer and inner surfaces, the written text and its pictorial accompaniments. It is quite likely that Willmott, a man of refined sensibilities with a keen interest in art and literature, had a hand in this arrangement.

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Photograph and text by Simon Cooke

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