The Art of the Book

First issued in 1914 as a Studio special number edited by Charles Holme, this volume collects essays by several writers on contemporary bookmaking in Britain, Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, Sweden, and the United States. The pieces survey type design and printing, page decoration, and fine binding, naming presses, binders, and the revival of craft after machine production. Plates and facsimiles accompany the text, but the argument is verbal: how a book should be set, decorated, and covered. It is a comparative review of the book arts, not a novel and not a manual that teaches a single trade from scratch.

Bound in full green cloth with the title printed in gold on the spine with a white dust-jacket printed in green. The American version was bound in full mustard cloth with the name of the author and ‘Studio-Cowell’ printed in gold on the spine and had a white dust-jacket printed in pale green and brown. A red slipcase has been seen with some 215 illustrations, 84 in colour.