TREGASKIS CENTENARY EXHIBITION

A catalogue of the Tregaskis Centenary Exhibition 1994, together with a facsimile of the Tregaskis Exhibition Catalogue of 1894 and colour plates of the bindings in both exhibitions.

With introductions by Marianne Tidcombe and an essay by Bernard C. Middleton.

The original Tregaskis Binding Collection contains seventy-three copies of the Kelmscott Press’s The Tale of King Florus and the Fair Jehane (Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1893) in unique bindings from twenty-seven different countries, commissioned for exhibition in 1894 by the London booksellers James (1850-1926) and Mary Lee Tregaskis (1853/4-1900). Seventy-six copies were sent out. One copy was returned from Kashmir unbound, as no binder could be found, another was destroyed in an earthquake in Greece, and a third was lost in a fire in Saxony. There is also one copy in the standard Kelmscott binding of linen-backed boards.

The work of several women binders is represented in the collection, most notably Sarah Prideaux (1853-1933) and Elizabeth MacColl (1863-1951); three bindings embroidered by women include a design by Walter Crane (1845-1915) that was executed by his wife.

The Library also owns the Tregaskis Centenary Bindings Collection, which comprises eighty-five copies of the Folio Society edition of Andrew Marvell’s (1621-1678) The Garden & Other Poems (London: Folio Society, 1993) in contemporary design bindings from thirty-two countries.

The collection was commissioned for exhibition in 1994 by Designer Bookbinders and was purchased by the Library with support from the Museums and Galleries Commission and the Victoria & Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund. Together these collections constitute a remarkable conspectus of fine bookbinding throughout the world at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries.