them to heart.

Next Thursday Mr. Cobden-Sanderson lectures on Bookbinding, a subject on
which few men in England have higher qualifications for speaking. We are
glad to see these lectures are so well attended.




THE BEAUTIES OF BOOKBINDING


(Pall Mall Gazette, November 23, 1888.)

'The beginning of art,' said Mr. Cobden-Sanderson last night in his
charming lecture on Bookbinding, 'is man thinking about the universe.' He
desires to give expression to the joy and wonder that he feels at the
marvels that surround him, and invents a form of beauty through which he
utters the thought or feeling that is in him. And bookbinding ranks
amongst the arts: 'through it a man expresses himself.'

This elegant and pleasantly exaggerated exordium preceded some very
practical demonstrations. 'The apron is the banner of the future!'
exclaimed the lecturer, and he took his coat off and put his apron on. He
spoke a little about old bindings for the papyrus roll, about the ivory
or cedar cylinders round which old manuscripts were wound, about the
stained covers and the elaborate strings, till binding in the modern
sense began with literature in a folded form, with literature in pages. A
binding, he pointed out, consists of two boards, originally of wood, now
of mill-board, covered with leather, silk or velvet. The use of these