Pierpont Morgan Library (New York)
Needham (Paul), born 1943

Two volumes (30.5 cm and 23 cm), I: xxvii, 338 pp., 7 colour plates, 106 full-page black & white plates. II: 20 pp. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - A lucid introduction to the history of Western bookbinding, presenting 100 examples from collections in the Pierpont Morgan Library. It commences with a group of four remarkable Coptic bindings of the fifth to ninth centuries, and ten medieval treasure bindings, however the great majority of entries describe bindings on printed books. There is some overlap with Nixon’s earlier book on the Morgan’s sixteenth century gold-tooled bindings (29 items), however no repetition, as Nixon’s focus is on the tools and their occurrences elsewhere and Needham places the copy in a larger, cultural context, and considers its previous owners. ¶ Light shelf-wear; otherwise a very good, unmarked copies.