IRISH BINDING. The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Church of Ireland; Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, Pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches.

SUPERB 18th CENTURY IRISH BINDING

Dublin: Printed by the Executors of David Hay, Assignee of the Late Boulter Grierson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, 1773. Large post octavo. The covers are executed in crimson morocco richly decorated, with a striking central panel of citron morocco inlaid to an oval shape. This is elaborately tooled in gilt with sprays of foliage, floral tools, and decorative sunbursts, the whole enclosed within a border of scalloped gouges picked out in red and gilt, radiating into small leafy sprays. The outer boards are framed with a delicate gilt dotted roll, typical of Dublin work of the period. Flat spine divided into six panels by gilt dotted lines and fillets with a gilt bath star at centres; the present splash-marbled endpapers represent the typical style of McKenzie with colours green, yellow, pink, red, white and black. Red morocco book label lettered in gilt ‘C M’ [Charlotte Morton], on front pastedown, with her signature dated 1799 on titlepage. Five pages of manuscript notes on the Morton family on endpapers. Professional repair to spine-ends. All edges gilt. A fine copy. The binding is a superb example of late eighteenth-century Irish craftsmanship.

The design is bold yet elegant, combining a restrained neoclassical symmetry with a distinctive Irish taste for contrasting leather onlays and inventive use of small tools. The craftsmanship is comparable with the work of Dublin binders associated with Grierson’s printing house, which was the leading producer of fine bindings in Ireland at this time.

Eighteenth-century Irish bindings are today widely collected for their originality and decorative quality. Often produced to accompany presentation or liturgical works, they are distinguished by their rich use of crimson or citron morocco, gilt-tooled ovals or lozenges, and inventive combinations of small decorative tools. The present example, from the press of Boulter Grierson’s successor David Hay, is characteristic of Dublin’s golden age of fine binding.

Such bindings are scarce survivals, as Irish work of the period was produced in relatively small numbers compared with the large binderies of London. Examples of this quality, especially in contrasting onlaid morocco with extensive gilt tooling, are highly desirable and increasingly recognised as a distinct national school within European decorative bookbinding.

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