Richard Cosway R.A. by COSWAY BINDING; RIVIÈRE & SON, binders; WILLIAMSON, George C

London: George Bell and Sons, 1905. A Very Early Cosway Binding

COSWAY BINDING. RIVIÈRE & SON, binders. [MISS C.B. CURRIE], miniaturist. WILLIAMSON, George C. Richard Cosway R.A. by George C. Williamson... London: George Bell and Sons, 1905.

First edition. Quarto (8 11/16 x 6 1/8 inches; 221 x 155 mm.). [i]-xiii, [xiv blank], 1-146, [147], [1, blank] pp. Illustrated throughout with over sixty photogravure plates, many with more than one image. Title-page printed in red and black.

Bound ca. 1905 by "Rivière & Son from Designs by J.H. Stonehouse" (stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-in). Full light brown crushed levant morocco. Covers with decorative gilt borders of rules and dots with gilt corner pieces. Front cover set with a very fine oval watercolor (2 7/8 x 2 3/8 inches; 73 x 60 mm.) of Georgiana Spenser, Duchess of Devonshire under curved glass by C.B. Currie. The portrait miniature is framed by a highly elaborate rococo design in gilt. Spine with five raised bands, elaborately tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, double-gilt ruled board edges, gilt ruled turn-ins, cream watered silk liners and endleaves, top edge gilt. Front and rear joints expertly repaired. With the engraved bookplate of Shipton Court, Oxon., the home of Edward and Emily Spencer on front blank. Housed in a felt-lined black cloth clamshell case, spine with leather label, lettered in gilt. A wonderful example of a true 'Cosway Binding'.

The fine portrait miniature which is undoubtedly by Miss C. B. Currie has been taken from the photogravure plate facing page 26.

In the first decade of the twentieth century, the London bookselling firm of Henry Sotheran & Co., introduced a type of binding that was decorative, had historic associations, and catered to the level of quality expected by connoisseurs at the time. Between 1902 and 1903, John Harrison Stonehouse (1864-1937), managing director of Sotheran's, created what came to be referred to as "Cosway bindings." These were named after the celebrated eighteenth-century English portrait miniaturist Richard Cosway (1742-1821). Cosway bindings are distinguished by their attractive, finely painted miniatures on ivory that are protected by glass and inset into the covers or doublures (inside covers) of elegantly tooled books. Stonehouse's success with the bindings was due in part to his employment of skilled miniaturist, Miss C. B. Currie. It has been estimated that Miss Currie painted several thousand miniatures, recognized for their delicate rendering and precision, for over nine hundred bindings before her death circa 1940. For many of the more lavish Cosway bindings, Currie painted multiple portraits. Occasionally, landscapes and other subjects adorn the covers or doublures. To enhance Currie's miniatures, Stonehouse arranged for the London firm of Rivière & Son to produce a variety of high-quality single-volume bindings. One of the best large-scale binderies active in the first quarter of the twentieth century, Rivière & Son integrated the miniatures into bindings for both previously published editions and new works. Stonehouse marketed Sotheran's finished Cosway-bound volumes primarily to booksellers in the United States or to American agents. Before Sotheran's 1911 catalogue, in which they identified the miniature artist as Miss Currie, the miniatures are attributable only by their recognizable style. By 1913, the bindings are distinguished by a limitation statement on a colophon leaf (where a publisher's emblem or trademark is placed), which provides the number of the Cosway binding with facsimile signatures of Stonehouse and Miss Currie. The customary gilt-stamped signature on the turn-in is generally lettered: "Bound by Riviére & Son from Designs by J. H. Stonehouse" and "Miniatures by C. B. Currie." Competitors, intrigued by the marketing potential of Sotheran's Cosway volumes, began copying the bindings soon after their initial introduction. Although the fashion for Cosway bindings diminished after World War II, the London binderies of Sangorski & Sutcliffe and Morrell continued to produce morocco-bound volumes with inset miniature paintings. Perhaps the most prolific follower has been the still existing English firm of George Bayntun, who acquired the Rivière stock of binding tools in 1939.

Stephen Ratcliffe mentions five examples of the same title in his Cosway Bindings. A Complete Illustrated Catalogue... One of them has a center portrait miniature of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire... two of them have portrait miniatures of Lady Priscilla Bertie, one with a portrait miniature of Lady Northwick, and the fifth with a portrait miniature of Mrs. Cosway and her baby daughter Angelica. All of the miniatures are by Miss C.B. Currie.

Shipton Court - built in 1603 for the Lacy family, and then in 1663 it was bought and remodeled by the Reade family... "In 1911, the new owners of Nowood, Edward Spencer and his wife, the former Emily Reed, hired architect George de Gersdorff to completely alter the home. The grand facade required a grand name: Shipton Court, after Emily Spencer's ancestral home in Shipton under Wychwood, Oxfordshire, England. Perhaps the Spencers should have named it Wychwood." (Images of America. Lenox Library Association, 2016, p. 88).