Westminster Abbey (London), Chapter Library
Nixon (Howard M.), 1909-1983

(25.5 cm), 159 (1) pp., 69 black & white and 3 colour illustrations. Publisher’s cloth (no dust jacket issued). - Catalogue of 60 English, 7 Scottish, and 4 Irish gold-tooled bindings, 1760-1910. The discussions of the bindings take the form of essays, and closely resemble those in Nixon’s Five Centuries (an anthology of his contributions to The Book Collector, 1978); “But the majority contain much new material or material that is now for the first time presented in a clear and ordered way. Sometimes it is information about the binder, sometimes about related bindings, or it may refer specifically to the binding in question. So it is that the worth of this book far exceeds that of an ordinary catalogue” (from a review by Jan Storm van Leeuwen, in Quaerendo, volume 18, 1988, pp.293-295). Nixon identifies a new Restoration binder, John Harding, and a new Edinburgh shop active from about 1725 to after 1750; detailed accounts are provided of the careers of several Victorian craftsmen. 1000 copies printed. ¶ Fine copy, still in the publisher’s plain glassine shipping wrapper.