This copy of Ruskin's book Frondes agrestes ... was bound in 1909 by the Doves Bindery. It has a dark-green morocco binding with a central gilt panel filled with a diaper pattern of roses and leaves. This is repeated on the back cover. A diaper pattern is a small pattern indefinitely repeated. There is an elaborate gilt spine.
Thomas Cobden-Sanderson started the Doves Bindery in 1893. Thereafter he did no binding himself, but made the designs which were carried out by his finisher Charles McLeish.
Types of decoration on bindings include:
Blind tooling where an impression is made on the leather without the use of gold or other colour to highlight it. This style can be dated back to the 8th century and has been used continuously since. Sometimes it is used in conjunction with gold tooling as a contrast.
Panel-stamps where the sides are impressed with a large plate or block, or by several large ones to create a design. This is less labor intensive than a design created by the small tool technique, and can produce good pictorial effects. They were largely used during the 15th and 16th centuries.
Gold blocking and gold tooling are two different methods which achieve a similar result. Gold blocking was a development of blind-blocking. It became popular during the reign of Elizabeth I and was usually carried out on religious works, and endeavoured to make cheaply produced books look more valuable. Blocks bearing the design were pressed into the moistened leather. Gold leaf was then laid on. Refinements of this basic method continue to be used.
Gold tooling is considered to have been introduced to Europe in the mid-1400s and spread to England by the end of the century. It was another century before it was widely adopted. In this method small tools are used to apply a variety of small designs, which together combine to create a larger pattern. The combination of different tools varied the pattern that could be applied. Paper patterns were used from about 1830 to produce blind impressions, which could then be tooled in gold without the risk of errors showing on the leather.
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Ruskin, John, 1819-1900, Doves binding. State Library of South Australia, accessed 16/01/2026, https://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/nodes/view/2188
