I’ve had an absolutely fascinating afternoon at the St. Brides Library in Blackfriars. The plan was to visit and attempt to find a project for my MA, but I must confess I got rather lost in the wonderfulness of the place – the building, the books, everything! – and have returned home without a project per say, though I have got some potentials here, a particularly interesting one with split stitching.
I must say a very big thank you to Mr Nigel Roche, who took the time to show me the library and the books and tell me a bit of history about the building and the collection.
A limp vellum bindingvellum on board, with an interesting spine liningAbsolutely amazing!Look at that spine!The mark of the printer Aldus, who was one of the first to use romanic and italic fontAmazing pencil work in the spineThis had very damaged corners, but we were not sure what it was from, initially I thought bugs, but it looks more like its been used for a doorstop!
A cambridge bindingI thought this might have been rebound...Speckled edges, familiar to the cambridge bindingsThe gothic type and small book edges, makes me think this may have been rebound.An interesting lttle binding that looks like it might need a lot work to the spine and sewing structure.Both boards are detached
Well this afternoon was an absolutely fascinating one spent at the Foundling Museum looking at some of the collection held there.
Foredge Painting
The Foundling Museum was initially set up as a children hospital for abandoned children in the 18th Century by Captain Thomas Coram. The musician Handel was a friend of Coram and strongly supported the hospital, putting on benefit concerts to raid money for the hospital. These concerts were one of the first public renditions of Messiah, one of Handel’s most famous pieces.
It was a collections if Handel’s work, both print and manuscript that we were looking at today. The pictures below should show some of the amazing books that we were viewing, which included a collection of works which was highly publicised earlier in the year for being a previously unknown work by Vivaldi! The whole afternoon was fascinating!
I know it might be yet another post about the V&A, but at the moment I seem to be spending quite a bit of time there, and have now seen a few interesting things! The National Art Library seems to be a hive on interest and exciting happenings – almost like toys that come to life when you’re not looking, the National Art Library leaps into action on Mondays when it’s closed to the public. A couple of Monday’s ago saw the BBC filming a piece in the library on armour and how it was made, as the library itself makes such a good backdrop – so watch out for that on your screens as I may be in the background!
A week ago I witnessed the changing of the Art Library’s light bulbs – an amazing feat, and (perhaps sadly) I’ve often wondered how they did it. Well now I know – They’re all done on a pulley system – there’s me imagining someone on a big step ladder precariously tittering on the edge whilst attempting to remove the glass globes – this in fact is not what happens at all – someone on the roof of the library winds down the pulley and the chandelier comes down all together so that they can all be changed whilst standing on the floor! I don’t think it happens all that often, so here are a couple of pics!
Lets not forget the quilting circle the meets on a Monday in the library – like I say a bustling place! I haven’t yet managed to join them with my quilt, which I should probably do, as they do look like pros!
Another interesting part of the V&A that perhaps everyone may not notice as they rush to get into the building itself, is the external wall which faces the Science Museum. Here you will see a scattering of craters in the wall itself, looking a little like a deteriorating wall. The wall is far from deteriorating, but it may take a moment to notice the plaque below stating that these are the result of the Blitz during World War II, which have been left as a subtle yet poignant reminder to the war.
And finally, as you walk down Exhibition Road towards the Royal Albert Hall, and take a left just after the V&A, you’ll find a little hubbub of activity around the LSE campus, including The Queen’s Tower, built to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Nearly demolished in the 60’s, it was rescued by the Victorian Society and John Betjeman, and is now all that remains of the Imperial Institute that once surrounded it!
Well, it’s a little late, I know, but I wanted to do a small post on the Bolognia Children’s Book Fair, as it only comes round once a year, and it’s not the norm for me!
The fair, perhaps obviously, is a children’s book fair, and as far as I am aware, the only book fair specific for children in the world. It is a delight to go to, possibly more so than the London and Frankfurt book fairs, as given the target audience, the books are filled with colour and illustrations as far as the eye can see. I was attending the fair with my aunt’s publishing house, Picthall & Gunzi, and am not ashamed to be biased in claiming that their books were by far the nicest there!!
Of course the location is also a bonus point for the fair – we enjoyed several delicious meals in local area, and a fantastic drink in the square. The square itself is surrounded on all four sides by some fantastic architecture, which i have included some pictures of here. Quite a beautiful place to visit if you have the chance.
A great trip, and one I thoroughly enjoyed! Especially the three churches which were about 2 minutes away from one another and quite staggering! (see below…)
The Team!
The stand – nice and busy!
Beautiful narrow streets
The national art gallery, which was on one side of the square, I think it used to be a university many years back!
Another side of the square
A student protest! – the same the world over!
These steps are in the art gallery, and were initially made like this so horses could go up them!
Well last Friday our class spent a really interesting afternoon at the V&A seeing the conservation being done on the Dickens manuscripts for David Copperfield – these were the actual pages that Dickens wrote – amazing!
Here you can seen some of the pages as I imagine they would have looked like on Dickens’ desk – all piled up and scribbled on! It’s unlikely these will be seen again in these piles as they are being re-bound in manuscript volumes for safe keeping at the National Art Library at the V&A.
The V&A are working through all the Dickens manuscripts they own and rebinding them, as the way they were previously bound (tipped on at three edges) was starting to pull at the pages. In their new housing the pages will be tipped on one edge and held down on the opposite side with a paper tag similar to what you would find in a photo album (as in the image above). This means the pages will be able to move around if they need to.
The covers of the manuscripts are in a replica marble paper that matches the original paper that covered the first bindings of these manuscripts that happened around Dickens’ time. These original bindings were taken apart in the 60’s by the V&A and rebound – this is what is now being updated.
Over the last couple of weeks we have spent a couple of afternoon’s with the exceedingly nice and knowledgeable Mr. Fred Bearman, who is the Preservation Librarian at the UCL Special Collection, and a Bookbinding Historian.
UCL LIBRARY
They have been wonderful afternoons, looking at some very early bindings dating back to the 15th century when printed books first came into existence, known as Incunabula, meaning ‘cradle’ or ‘swaddling’ in latin. Prior to this books were all manuscript and hand written, often by monks and clerical men.
There were also some other interesting ones, including a chemise binding – books with an extra cover on them which would wrap all around the book like a cloth, these popular prior to the development of Protestantism and after the latter these books were often cut down as they represented extreme Catholicism in some areas and were frowned upon.
Two very interesting afternoons – and very educational!! My brain is struggling to keep all the information locked in!!
