Hobson (Geoffrey D.), 1882-1949

(22.5 × 19 cm), 111 (1) pp., 8 plates on 4 leaves. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - First edition of Hobson’s study of blind-stamped panels used in England during the only period in which they were in vogue here. He believes that around 160-200 different panels were used in England and that the majority were the products of foreign craftsmen. “A valuable feature of the study is the relating of developments in bindings to the political and social circumstances of the time, which are found to have affected among other things the choice of subjects employed. As is well known, the English book trade of most of this period was dominated by men of foreign extraction, and among other conclusions drawn from this fact Mr Hobson attributes to it the strange absence of native saints from the panels used in England, and the frequent occurrence of royal arms panels, the latter on the ground that foreigners might be expected to be ‘plus royalistes que le roi’” (from a review by J.B. Oldham, in The Times Literary Supplement, 21 April 1945, p.192). F.A. Schmidt-Künsemüller, Bibliographie zur Geschichte der Einbandkunst von den Anfangen bis 1985 (Wiesbaden 1987), no. 4214. ¶ Paper defect in margin of four leaves; wrapper fatigued, but intact.