Politics and Script: Aspects of Authority and Freedom in the Development of Graeco-Latin Script from the Sixth Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. While, Garth. Small quarto. (iv), 361pp. Morison's thorough treatise on the sociopolitical evolutions of script styles, specially bound by Garth While in full vellum. While's clever take on Morison's text sets the title and a short description over a fragmented manuscript design, all painted, with the fragments shaded in blue, fuschia, orange, yellow, and gilt. The design is repeated on the rear cover, except mirrored, as though the viewer were reading it from underneath. The gaps in the manuscript are filled in on the gold-flecked endpapers, where, conversely, the fragments are left blank. Endbands in blue, orange, and black thread. Spine title likewise hand-painted in black. Scant edgewear, else fine. Housed in clamshell box. A.e.g.

Garth While learned bookbinding under H. A. De Coverley at Morley College, and under Shirley England at Bolt Court. He studied calligraphy with Dorothy Mahoney, a student of Edward Johnston, at the Stanhope Institute. While won a number of bookbinding competitions throughout the early 1980s, all in the field of vellum binding, and his lauded craftsmanship is on display here in this volume's tight finishes.