One hundred and twenty copies printed on Holland 
 paper, and ten on Japan. 
 
1.Q6E1U7S FAYXE, 
 
 Xtns Tindefor.MDCCXXXIX. denatiw Londiii: MDCTLXXXXVII. 
 
 ffrapbtcam sofrrtrsBIBLIOPEGI MvnMo'i'riwv mrrrts BJBLIOPOLA <ir#it._ 
 
 ROGER PAYNE JN HIS WORKSHOP. 
 
ROGER PAYNE 
 
 AND HIS ART 
 
 A SHORT ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE 
 AND WORK AS A BINDER 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM LORING ANDREWS 
 
 NEW-YORK 
 
 PRINTED AT THE DE VINNE PRESS 
 1892 
 
INSCRIBED, IN RECOGNITION 
 
 OF HIS PREEMINENCE 
 
 IN THE ART OF 
 
 BOOKBINDING 
 
 IN AMERICA, 
 
 TO 
 
 WILLIAM MATTHEWS. 
 
 o o o 
 
 o o 
 
 o 
 
 IW529834 
 
" A well bound book is neither of one type, nor 
 finished so that its highest praise is that ' had it been 
 made by a machine it could not have been made bet- 
 ter/ It is individual ; it is instinct with the hand of 
 him who made it ; it is pleasant to feel, to handle, and 
 to use j it is the original work of an original mind 
 working in freedom simultaneously with hand and 
 heart and brain to produce a thing of use, which all 
 time shall agree ever more and more also to call ' a 
 thing of beauty.' " 
 
 J. COBDEN-SANDERSON. 
 
 ' 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 Ik JO more striking evidence can be seen of 
 1 V the influence the Grolier Club is exerting 
 upon its members, and to some extent upon book- 
 lovers outside of its borders, than in tbe change 
 that has taken place in the style and methods of 
 book-cottefting. Informer times, it was sufficient 
 for the collector to possess any copy not the 
 copy of a particular edition. Condition was not 
 insisted upon so long as possession was attained. 
 This can easily be verified by any one who will 
 take the trouble to look through any large general 
 library formed thirty or forty years ago. It will 
 be at once apparent that the niceties of clean copies, 
 uncut edges, fine and appropriate bindings, were 
 not thought of, and that while here and there might 
 be found a treasure from some of the old-time 
 printers and binders, yet after all it was but a 
 
chance acquisition and not there as the result of a 
 carefully thought out plan. All this is changing. 
 The collector of the present day is, from the force 
 of circumstances, if for no higher and better rea- 
 son, compelled to become more and more of a 
 Specialist. Each one must confine himself to the 
 period or particular department of literature that 
 appeals most strongly to his taste or fancy, and 
 then strive to make his collection in all respects as 
 complete as possible. 
 
 It is this among other valuable lessons that the 
 Grolier Club has taught its members by its ex- 
 hibitions, leclures, and publications. This pre- 
 dominating influence has been felt even by our 
 older and better-known collectors. 
 
 The present sketch of Roger Payne, which it is 
 a pleasure as well as an honor to introduce to 
 those who are the fortunate possessors of the limited 
 number issued, owes its origin largely to the f aft 
 above stated. 
 
 The author, having become possessed of a few 
 characteristic Specimens of Roger Payne's work, 
 was led to study his effecls and methods, and in 
 the end became a noted coUeclor as well as the en- 
 
thusiastic admirer his monograph shows him to 
 be. The following essay is the result of careful 
 study and minute examination of all that could 
 be discovered regarding Roger Payne's life and 
 work, and the opinion may safely be advanced 
 that it contains att that is known of that singular, 
 erratic, but withal artistic character. For those 
 who are not fortunate enough to own the original 
 print of Roger Payne at work in his garret 
 showing him a t( thing of rags and tatters," indeed, 
 and very touching in its pathos the frontispiece 
 will possess great interest. TJje plates of bindings 
 have been most successfully reproduced from the 
 books themselves by Mr. Edward Bierstadt, who has 
 employed his well-known artotype process to give 
 an exact facsimile in gold and colors of the volumes 
 as they are. As far as known, this is the first 
 attempt in this country to reproduce bindings in 
 color by this process; and it must be conceded 
 that they preserve more closely the characteristics 
 of the books themselves than many of the more 
 highly wrought but idealised plates of bindings 
 that are so common nowadays. 
 
 With these t( forewords," this booklet is left to 
 
 9 
 
the "courteous reader," with merely a pause to 
 say that if he derives one half the amount of plea- 
 sure in reading that the author had in writing, 
 there will be pleasure enough and to sj>are. 
 
 BEVERLY CHEW. 
 
LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF ROGER PAYNE Frontispiece 
 
 FACSIMILE OF BILL FOR BINDING WATTS'S 
 
 VIEWS faces page 27 
 
 BINDINGS : 
 
 LA PUCELLE. Paris, 1656 " 13 
 
 ELZEVIR LIVY OF 1634 17 
 
 " PLAUTUS OF 1652, showing the 
 
 wide inside joint . ... 18 
 
 ENSIGNS OF HONOUR. Oxford, 1682 . 25 
 
 OUTSIDE COVER OF WATTS'S VIEWS . "26 
 
 INSIDE " " " . . " 27 
 NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSEHOLD BOOK. 
 
 London, 1770 29 
 
 THE HOLY BIBLE. Edinburgh, 1715 . 31 
 
 PSALMS. Brady & Tate, 1716 ... " 35 
 
LA PUCELLE. 
 M. CHAPELAIN, PARIS, 1656. 
 
ROGER PAYNE AND HIS ART. 
 
 HE story of the life of Roger 
 Payne, the most noted Eng- 
 lish binder of the eighteenth 
 century, is unfortunately the 
 common one of many men 
 of genius. It is the history of a man 
 generously endowed by nature with the 
 inventive faculty of mind, and possessed of 
 a high degree of manual skill in his handi- 
 craft, but of an entirely thriftless disposition 
 and most irregular habits of life. The pic- 
 ture presented is one of days and nights 
 devoted to patient, painstaking labor amidst 
 surroundings of wretchedness and squalor, 
 succeeded by long periods of idleness and 
 dissipation, the scene closing, when he was 
 hardly past the prime of life, with a lonely 
 
T^pger "Payne 
 
 death in a comfortless garret in Duke's 
 Court, St. Martin's Lane. 
 
 It is nevertheless the history of a man 
 who, notwithstanding these serious hin- 
 drances to his success, stands foremost in the 
 ranks of English bookbinders the foun- 
 der of a purely English style of decoration 
 for the covers of books, one which has re- 
 ceived for nearly a century since he died that 
 sincerest form of admiration and approval 
 shown by imitation. From the few ex- 
 amples of binding distinctively English in 
 character that existed in the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, he formed by the force 
 of his taste and genius a style of ornamenta- 
 tion of his own, which for beauty and sim- 
 plicity of design and true artistic feeling in 
 execution has yet to be equaled by any 
 other binder of the English school. 
 
 Roger Payne was born in Windsor For- 
 est, in the year 1739, and first found em- 
 ployment with Pote, a noted bookseller at 
 Eton; thence he migrated to London, and 
 entered the service of Thomas Osborne, a 
 dealer in book rarities in Gray's Inn. This 
 
and His 
 
 connection proved a very transient one, and 
 he is next found established in business for 
 himself by the kindness and benevolence of 
 a namesake, Thomas Payne, whose shop at 
 the Mews Gate was for half a century (1740 
 to 1790) a much-frequented resort of the 
 learned men, authors, and book-collectors, 
 "the Farmers, Cracherodes, Roxburghes, and 
 Spencers of the day." He remained the 
 friend and benefactor of Roger through life, 
 notwithstanding the trials to which his pa- 
 tience was subjected by the dissolute and ir- 
 regular habits of the man he was constantly 
 befriending. The frontispiece, which is a 
 veritable portrait of Roger Payne in his di- 
 lapidated and scantily furnished work-room, 
 is copied from an engraving which, as the 
 inscription shows, was made at the expense 
 of Thomas Payne. 1 Here he executed his 
 
 1 Thomas Payne, " Honest Tom Payne." He commenced his 
 career in Round Court in the Strand opposite York buildings, where 
 he was an assistant to his elder brother, Oliver Payne, with whom 
 originated (it is said) the idea and practice of printing catalogues 
 his first (T. P.) catalogue is dated July 29, 1740. His little shop 
 [in the shape of an L] was the first that obtained the name of 
 a literary coffee-house in London, from the knot of literati that 
 resorted to it. Dibdin's Decameron. 
 
 15 
 
T^pger Tayne 
 
 many beautiful bindings, often obliged by 
 his necessities to make for himself out of 
 iron the tools which he required. 
 
 The materials used by Roger Payne as 
 coverings for his bindings were almost with- 
 out exception either straight-grained morocco 
 or russia leather, the first as notable for its 
 durability as the latter is for the lack of that 
 quality. 1 His decided preference was for 
 a straight-grained morocco of a bright red 
 color, which supplied him with a rich 
 background for gold tooling; on this he 
 placed an ornament, generally simple in char- 
 acter, but always, as he informs us in his vo- 
 luminous bills, intended to be appropriate to 
 and in harmony with the character of the 
 book it covered. In using a border of an- 
 tique shields and crescents, he tells us he 
 adopted them as ornaments because they 
 were in the head-piece of the preface of the 
 book, and therefore he considered them suit- 
 able. On the doublure of a binding on a 
 
 1 Russia leather is one of the most undesirable materials that can 
 be used for a binding. In a very short space of time it loses its life 
 and becomes hard and brittle, breaking away at the joints j it also 
 fades in color more quickly than any other kind of leather. 
 16 
 
'I LIVII HISTORIA 
 
 ELZEVIR, 1634. 
 
and His </lrt 
 
 vellum copy of the " Aldine Anthologia," he 
 placed two lyres, the upper one inverted, and 
 in the center a figure apparently intended to 
 represent a Triton blowing his' conch-shell. 
 It is difficult sometimes to understand clear- 
 ly the meaning of his emblematic tooling ; 
 when, however, his bill accompanies the 
 book, he leaves no room for conjecture, but 
 ascribes a meaning and significance to almost 
 every line he has put upon it. 
 
 In his less elaborate work the predom- 
 inating style is a delicate tracery of running 
 vines and leaves, interspersed with numerous 
 small dots, stars, and circlets of gold. This 
 he calls " studded work." The result is pecu- 
 liarly rich and effective. The backs are often 
 covered with this style of decoration, the sides 
 being left quite unadorned or with an orna- 
 ment confined to the border, leaving the cen- 
 ter blank. Inside joints are almost invariably 
 found, often very wide and lavishly tooled 
 and gilded, the outside of the book in these 
 cases being treated very simply. 
 
 His most common style of binding is a 
 richly tooled and gilded back, and a simple 
 17 
 
T^pger Tayne 
 
 line or two upon the sides, with occasionally 
 the addition of a bit of his characteristic foli- 
 age tooling in the corners. He seldom finished 
 a book in full doublure or with silk linings 
 and fly-leaves in the style of Thouvenin and 
 Bozerian, and there is no example, as far as 
 the writer is aware, of his work in mosaic. 
 Many of his bindings, especially in russia 
 leather, are partly blind-tooled and partly 
 gilt, with pleasing effect. Every impression 
 of a tool, elaborate or simple, is undoubtedly 
 the work of his own hands. 
 
 The end-papers used by Roger Payne 
 have been more severely criticized than any 
 other peculiarity in his binding. They are 
 almost invariably of a plain color, with- 
 out any pattern, and often purple, for which 
 tint he appears to have had a remarkable 
 fondness; and it must be admitted that 
 these colors frequently form a disagreeable 
 contrast to the tone of the outside cover, 
 and have the further disadvantage of a 
 tendency to become in time spotted and 
 discolored. It is questionable, however, 
 whether the plain, tinted papers were not 
 id 
 
PLAUTI COM1EDI1E. 
 ELZEVIR, 1652. 
 
and His */lrt 
 
 preferable to the marbled ones then ob- 
 tainable and which he sometimes, though 
 rarely, used, for they were, as a rule, both 
 crude in color and poor in design. The 
 figured and gilt lining-papers used by the 
 French binders of the period, though very 
 beautiful, would not have been in har- 
 mony with the character of his binding, 
 and he never made use of them. 
 
 Many of his bindings are without any 
 tooling whatever save a plain gold line 
 around the edge ; but, however simple the 
 binding, it will invariably be found to be 
 put together in an artistic and workman- 
 like manner. There appears to be little 
 force in the criticism that his boards are 
 too thin; they are thin and delicate, but 
 they never warp, and keep their place, 
 firmly secured to the back. What advan- 
 tage, then, would be gained by having more 
 weight and substance in them ? 
 
 His extreme care in forwarding is well 
 
 shown by the fine condition in which many 
 
 of his bindings remain to the present time. 
 
 Every leaf, as he tells us repeatedly in his 
 
 19 
 
T^pger Tayne 
 
 bills, was most firmly and securely stitched 
 separately into the back, the silken head- 
 bands were strongly and neatly worked in, 
 and the greatest care was exercised that the 
 leaves should be placed squarely and true ; 
 in fact, it is doubtful if any binder ever at- 
 tended with such painstaking care and mi- 
 nuteness to all the small details of his work. 
 In a copy of Tewrdannckh (folio, 1517), 
 bound for Mr. Wodhull, a noted collector 
 of the last century (for whom Roger Payne 
 executed many bindings), is inserted a proof 
 of the portrait engraved by Harding, shown 
 in the frontispiece ; a reduced copy of 
 this print will also be found in Dibdin's 
 "Decameron," Vol. II., page 510. The en- 
 graving of this portrait is remarkable evi- 
 dence of the estimation in which Payne's 
 work was held by the book-lovers of the 
 day, when we remember that only one other 
 engraved portrait of a bookbinder exists 
 that of Charles Lewis. Even of the great- 
 est of the modern French binders, Trautz, 
 there is only a process-plate print. 
 
and His </lrt 
 
 The binding of this copy of Tewrdannckh, 
 which is quite simply ornamented, cost 
 ;8. As Payne's charges were most moder- 
 ate, much of this amount must have been 
 the cost of cleaning and repairing. In this 
 part of his work he was assisted by a Mrs. 
 Weir, 1 noted for her skill in cleaning and 
 mending injured or decayed books. She 
 is also said to have been a binder of books, 
 somewhat in the style of Roger Payne's plain 
 work. A copy of Albertis's " Opus prae- 
 clarum in Amoris Remedio," 1417, which 
 came from the White Knights, Hibberts, 
 Marquis of Blandford, and Syston Park 
 collections, is said to be a specimen of 
 her binding. It is in blue, straight-grained 
 morocco, such as was often used by Payne, 
 and has the same plain colored end-papers ; 
 
 1 Mrs. Weir repaired many of the books in the famous library 
 of Count McCarthy at Toulouse, and the parchments, vellums, 
 etc., in the Record Office in Edinburgh. Her chef-d'oeuvre in 
 the art of restoration is said to be a copy of the " Faite of Arms 
 and Chivalrye," printed by Caxton, sold in the Roxburghe Sale. 
 Her husband, Richard Weir, was taken by Payne as a partner 
 in his later years j but as they were both afflicted with a too great 
 fondness for the ale-cup, they soon quarreled and separated. 
 
T^pger Tayne 
 
 the only decoration on the side is a bor- 
 der line of gold, with the arms of the Mar- 
 quis of Blandford in the center. 
 
 The closest imitator of Roger Payne's 
 plain bindings was Kalthoeber; his elabor- 
 ate tooling he never attempted to copy. 
 The note of caution sounded so often in the 
 catalogues of London booksellers, as to the 
 danger of being deceived by imitations of 
 Roger Payne's binding, is hardly warranted 
 by the facts of the case. Any one who 
 has become familiar with genuine examples 
 of his work is in little danger of being 
 deceived by an imitation, so distinctive 
 and unmistakable is his style. 
 
 His bindings bear no signature. That 
 practice had not yet been adopted in Eng- 
 land, and only occasionally in France do we 
 find the binders of the eighteenth century 
 making use of a small printed slip (" eti- 
 quette "), with the name and address, inside 
 the cover. 
 
 In place of a signature we have, how- 
 ever, many of his bills. They are full of 
 quaintness and originality, and are verbose 
 
and His </Irt 
 
 i 
 
 to the last degree. The following is a copy 
 of his bill for binding the "^Eschylus" 
 (Glasgow, 1795) for Lord Spencer, consid- 
 ered to be the finest example of his work- 
 manship in existence. 
 
 , Glasguae MDCCXCV Flaxman Illus- 
 travit Bound in the very best manner sew'd with 
 strong Silk, every Sheet around every Band, not false 
 Bands, The Back lined with Russia leather, Cutt 
 Exceeding Large. Finished in the Most Magnifi- 
 cent Manner Em-bordered with ERMINE Expres- 
 sive of the High Rank of the Noble Patroness of 
 The Designs The other Parts Finished in the 
 most elegant Taste with small Tool Gold Borders 
 Studded with Gold and small Tool Panes of the 
 most Exact Work. Measured with The Compasses. 
 It takes a great deal of Time making out the differ- 
 ent Measurements; preparing the Tools; and making 
 out New Patterns. The Back Finished in Compart- 
 ments with parts of Gold studded Work and open 
 Work to Relieve the Rich close studded Work. All 
 the Tools except Studded points are obliged to be 
 Workt off plain first and afterwards the Gold 
 laid on & Worked off again. And this Gold Work 
 requires double Gold being on Rough Grain'd Mo- 
 rocco The Impressions of the Tools must be fitted 
 & coverM at the bottom with Gold to prevent flaws & 
 cracks. 12 > 12 > 
 
T^pger Tdyne 
 
 Fine Drawing Paper for Inlaying 
 The Designs. 5! 6<? Finest Pickt 
 Lawn Paper for Interleaving The 
 Designs, i? 8? | i yd. & a half of 
 Silk. io s . 64 Inlaying the Designs at 
 8<? each 32 DESIGNS, i. i. 4. 
 Mr. Morton adding Borders to the 
 Drawings. 
 
 i 16 - 
 
 7 - 
 
 The following bill is inserted in a copy 
 of Hey don's " Harmony of the World " (Lon- 
 don), 1662, bound for Dr. Mosely, and tooled 
 in what Payne calls the " Rosie Crucian taste " 
 and the " Druid taste," whatever they may 
 be. For some reason this binding, although 
 not an important specimen, appears to have 
 been a noted one, and a copy of the bill 
 is also given in Dibdin's "Decameron." 
 
 Bound in the very best Manner. 
 k sew 'd in the very best 
 manner with white Silk very strong 
 and will open easy, very neat & strong 
 Boards. Fine Drawing paper in- 
 side staind to suit ye colour of ye 
 Book. The outsides Finished in 
 the Rosie Crucian Taste very cor- 
 rect measured Work. The Inside Finished in the 
 Druid Taste with Acorns & S S (vide Stuckley's 
 
 HARMONY 
 OF THE 
 WORLD 
 
 BY 
 
 HEYDON 
 LONDON 
 MDCLXII. 
 
ENSIGNS OF HONOUR. 
 WILLIAM DUGDALE, OXFORD, l682. 
 
and His 
 
 ABURY). Studded with Stars &c in the most 
 magnificent manner. So neat elegant & Strong as 
 this Book is Bound. The Binding is well worth 13*. 
 and The inlaying The frontispiece Cleaning & Mend- 
 ing is worth 2S. To (Dr. Mosely's) great goodness I 
 am so much indebted that my Gratitude setts the 
 price for the Binding inlaying Cleaning & Mending 
 at only los. 6d. 
 
 1796. i8th August Rec'd the Contents by me. 
 ROGER PAYNE. 
 
 This bill bears his autograph signature, 
 which is an unusual occurrence. 
 
 In one of his bills for binding " Recre- 
 ations for Ingenious Head Pieces," sold in 
 the Doctor's library in 1815, he indulges 
 in the following bit of original verse, his 
 own composition, laudatory of his beloved 
 barley broth : 
 
 But history gathers 
 
 From aged forefathers 
 
 That ales the true liquor of life 
 
 Men liv'd long in health 
 
 And preserved their wealth, 
 
 Whilst Barley-Broth only was rife. 
 
 Most of the bindings in Dr. Mosely's 
 library were probably executed by Payne 
 in compensation for medical advice. 
 
Ttyger Tayne 
 
 The following bill for binding "Sandys' 
 Travels, MDCX," "Wheeler and Spon's 
 Travels, MDCLXXV," is copied here as 
 evidence of the exceeding care taken by 
 Payne in repairing and forwarding (with 
 the aid undoubtedly of Mrs. Weir) the 
 books intrusted to him, some of which 
 must have been in an all but hopeless 
 state of dilapidation. 
 
 Bound in the very best Manner, sewed in the 
 Best manner with Bands outside of ye Back, Fine 
 Drawing Paper for flying Leaves at ye beg-yining and 
 end of the Book. Fine dark Coloured Paper inside 
 & Morocco Joints very neat. 
 
 The Back coverd with Russia Leather before the 
 outside cover was put on. N. B. The Common 
 practise of Book-binders is to Line their Books with 
 Brown or Cartridge Paper, the Paper Lining splits 
 and parts from the Backs and will not last for Time 
 and much reading. Bound in the finest Russia 
 Leather of the same Colour as imported. Parts was 
 staind wanted washing and cleaning, which I have 
 taken particular care to do, to make the Books as 
 fair and clean as I possibly could, it being a prin- 
 cipal object to make it a fine copy. Their was a 
 great many torn places, which 1 mended as neat as 
 I possibly could of the same Colour'd paper as the 
 Books. The Prints wanted new margins to all of 
 
SEATS OF THE NOBILITY AND GENTRY. 
 W. WATTS, LONDON, 177Q. 
 
INSIDE COVER OF WATTS'S VIEWS. 
 
- -^ *W 0- 
 
 uvjfsrv*^ 14-./4*. iVffm M-/fS& /-tsrt- Sc^it* 
 
 <?&, uz*&. <&* ,^/< :, T: 
 
 y/ si C\ /} '- // 
 
 t 
 
 A \ 
 
 f**S- .^ 6 , .. 
 
 '- x '//>-- : ^ j 
 
 ^//%/^- <5^t^,,' Vx -r^/ 
 
 /^i^^^y^ , 
 
 ^ //7 ' 
 
 " ' - X* 
 
 > $"" < ' 
 
 p 
 
 BILL FOR BINDING WATTS'S VIEWS. 
 (SEE NEXT PAGE.) 
 
? f*A. 
 
 UfJ 
 
 Hny I-' / 
 
 <** . t *" ' y C 
 
 ^'^ *T^? A 
 
 ,v > 
 fe^ > 
 
 st . - ^ . ^; > ;- ' 
 
 / ; g -/^p 
 
 ^ / 
 
 '. * 
 
 . 
 
 A . ; ' 
 
 li<$t ' -'ML A/2 > 
 
 h: 
 
and His Jlrt 
 
 them except 2 or 3 for the old margins was ragd 
 and staind. I have taken care to piece the margins 
 very neat with paper of the same Colour and sub- 
 stance in the thickness or thiness of the various 
 Prints as I passably could, took a great deal of time. 
 I hope I have been earful to put in the very best 
 impressions. I have taken care not to beat or any 
 ways injure the Prints. I have been conscientiously 
 carc-ful in all parts of ye Work. ji. 13. o. Dec. 1** 
 1794. Rec<? the Contents. 
 
 Per ROGER PAYNE, Book-binder. 
 
 The reproduction opposite is a facsimile 
 of a very beautiful specimen of his binding 
 upon a large quarto volume, "Watts's Views 
 of the Seats of the Nobility." A facsimile 
 of his bill for the same is also given. 
 
 One of the singular pieces of good for- 
 tune that sometimes, although rarely, be- 
 fall the collector of books is illustrated by 
 an experience of the writer some years 
 since. 
 
 A copy of the "Northumberland House- 
 hold Book," bound by Roger Payne, was 
 purchased at the Stourhead Library sale 
 in 1883. No bill was noted in the cata- 
 logue as accompanying the book, but it 
 
T^pger Tayne 
 
 was a well-authenticated binding of Roger 
 Payne, and the bill itself was printed in 
 full in Clarke's " Repertorium Bibliographi- 
 cum." Apparently the original bill had 
 been lost. In 1888, five years afterward, 
 the following note came from the London 
 agent : 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 One of the people at Sotheby's [the old and 
 well known London auction house] found in a lot 
 of waste paper the original Roger Paynes bill for 
 binding the Northumberland book which I bought 
 for you at the Stourhead Library Sale & feeling 
 sure that you would like to put it into the book 
 I gave him a reward for it (10 shillings), & now 
 enclose it to you. 
 
 Thus, after five years of separation, dur- 
 ing which this little slip of paper had been 
 lying unnoticed on the dusty floor of a 
 London auction-room, it and the book to 
 which it belonged were safely brought to- 
 gether again. 
 
:ARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND'S HOUSEHOLD BOOK. 
 LONDON, 1770. 
 
and His </lrt 
 
 BILL FOR BINDING THE NORTHUMBERLAND 
 HOUSEHOLD BOOK. 
 
 Bound in the very best Manner 
 THE EARL OF in Red Morocco. 
 
 NORTHUM- No false Bands but Sew<? in the 
 
 BERLAND'S very best Manner on strong & 
 
 neat Bands. The Back lined with 
 
 HOUSEHOLD Russia Leather under the Morocco 
 
 BOOK Covering. Fine Drawing paper 
 
 Colourd to suit the original Colour 
 BEGUN of the Book Inside for flying leaves 
 
 ANNO and very neat Morocco Joints in- 
 
 DOMINI side. The Outsides Finished in 
 MDXII an elegant Antiq /Taste with Bor- 
 
 ders of 'S 'S & Laurel Branch an 
 LONDON Andq Shield & Crescent in ye 
 PRINTED Borders. The Crescent is used in 
 MDCCLXX the Head piece of ye preface which 
 
 was my reason for using it in the 
 Back & Borders being suitable to 
 the Book. The greatest care hath 
 be taken to preserve the margins. 
 
 Gilt leaves not Cutt. 2 leaves 
 
 was very much staind at y e end 
 
 of the Book we washed them very \. i. o 
 
 carfully and they are now very 
 
 Clean. 
 
T^pger Tayne 
 
 BILL FOR BINDING A COPY OF LILLY'S CHRIS- 
 TIAN ASTROLOGY, NOW IN THE LIBRARY 
 OF THE GROLIER CLUB. 
 
 CHRISTIAN ASTROLOGY BY LILLY. 
 LONDON. MDCLIX. 
 
 Bound in the very best manner, sewd in the very 
 best and most honest manner on Bands, outside. 
 The Book being very thick it required the greater 
 care in sewing to make it easy and not fail. 
 
 it is absolutely a very Extra Bound Book. I hope 
 to be forgiven in saying so & unmatchable Velum 
 Headbands, so as not to break like paper rold up 
 Headbands. 
 
 The greatest care and method taken to make this 
 Book as good a Copy as my hands and experience of 
 Work was able to do the Binding s 
 
 in Russia Quarto. 1 1 
 
 Washing & taking out the Writing 
 Ink. Washed the Whole Book. 6-6 
 
 Cleaning it was very dirty & I am 
 certain took full 2 Days Work. The 
 Frontispece was in a very indif- 
 ferent Condition all the Writing 
 Ink is taken out of it amended & > 6 
 several other places mended. The 
 greatest care hath been taken of 
 the Margins. Gilt. 
 
 Leaves not Cutt. 
 
and His <Art 
 
 One of the most beautiful bindings of 
 Roger Payne is upon a copy of " The 
 Holy Bible" printed at Edinburgh, 1715, 
 now in the possession of a New-York 
 collector. It has more than an ordinary 
 interest from the fact of its having been 
 specially bound for his friend Mr. Thomas 
 Payne, and has his initials worked in the 
 ornament on the side. This binding was 
 copied for the cover of the first publication 
 of the Grolier Club, "The Decree of 
 Starre-Chamber," the letters G. C. being 
 substituted for T. P. The original bill is 
 inserted, in which the binder says: "The 
 outsides finished in the richest and most 
 elegant taste, richer and more exact than 
 any book that I ever bound." 
 
 The charge for binding was \ 18 o; 
 for mending and cleaning, o 3 6 ; a total 
 of ^2 i 6. 
 
 Its present marketable value is easily 
 forty times this sum. 
 
 The patrons of Roger Payne numbered 
 all the noted book-collectors of the last 
 century. For Earl Spencer he bound many 
 
T^pger Tayne 
 
 books, notably his chef-d'oeuvre, the "JEs- 
 chylus," previously mentioned. The Beau- 
 clerc, Cracherode, and Stanley collections 
 also contained fine specimens of his work, 
 as did also that of Mr. Wodhull, the well- 
 known classical scholar and collector. At 
 the sale of the Wodhull library and that of 
 the Duke of Hamilton, and at the Syston 
 Park sale, all of which have occurred dur- 
 ing the past eight years, the principal and 
 almost the only opportunities have been 
 afforded for this generation of collectors to 
 secure specimens of Roger Payne's bind- 
 ing. No important source of supply ap- 
 parently now remains excepting the improb- 
 able one of the library at Althorp (Lord 
 Spencer's) coming upon the market. 
 
 Roger Payne died in a little room in 
 Duke's Court, St. Martin's Lane, London, 
 on the 2oth of November, 1797. In this 
 brief sketch of his life and work it is not 
 sought to prove that he excelled or even 
 equaled in artistic sense or skilful execu- 
 tion the famous French and Italian binders 
 of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
 
and His 
 
 The French book-collector covets no Roger 
 Payne binding; neither, for that matter, is 
 he much interested in any book that has not 
 something Gallic in its construction. The 
 catalogue of his library rings the changes on 
 La Fontaine, Moliere, and the remainder of 
 the circumscribed list of great French au- 
 thors, until the reiteration becomes weari- 
 some. But to the English or the American 
 collector the distinct and thoroughly Anglo- 
 Saxon flavor of Roger Payne's work is pe- 
 culiarly grateful and attractive ; it is more 
 in harmony with his Chippendale or Shera- 
 ton cabinet than the bindings of Le Gascon, 
 Pasdeloup, or Duseuil, charming and beau- 
 tiful as they are. An incidental advantage 
 of a Roger Payne binding is, that it covers, 
 as a rule, cleaner and more wholesome litera- 
 ture than that of his fellow-craftsmen across 
 the Channel. 
 
 The annals of English binders preced- 
 ing Roger Payne are few and meager. 
 The Irish monk Dazius in the sixth cen- 
 tury illuminated manuscripts and covered 
 them with gorgeous bindings of gold, 
 
 33 
 
PSALMS OF DAVID. 
 N. BRADY, LONDON, iyi6. 
 
and His <Art 
 
 more representative of the art of needle- 
 work than that of bookbinding. 
 
 William Caxton, the first English printer, 
 and his immediate successors, Wynkyn de 
 Worde, Pynson, and Machlinia, may be 
 styled the printer-binders, the books which 
 they printed being undoubtedly bound at 
 the press before they were offered to the pub- 
 lic for sale, probably by workmen brought 
 from Germany, France, and Flanders. 
 
 Of all the English bindings that have 
 come under the writer's observation, the one 
 which represents a style by which Payne 
 may have been influenced more than by any 
 other is upon a little duodecimo volume of 
 the "Psalmes of David," printed in 1716. 
 It is ornamented with the same or similar 
 trailing vines and leaves, and multitudinous 
 dots and circlets, so much employed by 
 Payne. Although akin to this beautiful 
 creation of his nameless predecessor, Payne's 
 work is never an imitation of it, but invari- 
 ably bears the stamp of his own genius and 
 individuality. 
 
 To many book-collectors of the present 
 
T^pger Tayne 
 
 day this estimate of the bibliopegic skill 
 of Roger Payne may appear too highly 
 colored. That the artistic quality of his 
 work was fully recognized and his bindings 
 greatly esteemed by the collectors of the 
 last century (the formative period of the 
 finest as well as the most extensive private 
 libraries of England) we have the testi- 
 mony of John Nichols, the " indefatigable 
 editor" of the "Gentleman's Magazine," 
 who wrote of him, shortly after his death, 
 these words of unstinted praise : " He lived 
 without a rival, and died, it is feared, with- 
 out a successor." 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
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 Th book is du 
 
 CBRARY 
 
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 ped below. 
 
 .General Library 
 University ? f Calig rn ; 
 
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