Books and Manuscripts

Cowper, William
The Diverting History of John Gilpin
London: Printed for the Guild of Women-Binders, 1899. First and limited edition, #98 of only 100 numbered copies on vellum. 8vo. 49, (1) pp. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece, 11 engraved plates, and numerous in-text and head-piece engravings, by Chas. E. Brock. Original full brown niger, tooled in gilt foliate patterning on front and rear board, joints and corners lightly rubbed, scattered light soiling to boards; edges stained green and subtly and charmingly tooled in gilt; by the Guild of Women-Binders; old ownership signature on front paste-down; plate facing p. 22 loose; original Guild of Women-Binders printed slip laid in.

Together with:

Shelley, Percy Bysshe
The Sensitive Plant
London: Printed for the Guild of Women-Binders, 1899. First and limited edition, #22 of only 50 numbered copies on vellum. 8vo. 60 pp. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece and 11 engraved plates by Laurence Housman. Original full brown niger, tooled in gilt foliate patterning on front and rear boards, joints, extremities, and spine ends rubbed, abrasion at bottom of rear board, scattered minor soiling to boards; edges stained green and subtly and charmingly tooled in gilt; by the Guild of Women-Binders; old ownership signature on front paste-down; original Guild of Women-Binders printed slip laid in.

The Guild of Women-Binders was established by London bookseller Frank Karslake in 1898 with the purpose of training, promoting and selling the works of women bookbinders. Karslake was inspired to start the guild after attending the Victorian Era Exhibition at Earl's Court in 1897 where he encountered the work of several women binders, including that of Annie MacDonald. MacDonald encouraged Karslake to start the venture and to act as their agent to promote and sell their work. In the months that followed he organized a successful show at his Charing Cross bookshop, "The Exhibition of Artistic Book-bindings by Women," and then established a school to train women in the process of tooling and finishing. Several notable binders were affiliated with the Guild, including MacDonald, Helen Schofield, Phoebe Traquair, and Florence de Rheims, among several others, including Karslake's two daughters, Constance and Olive Karslake. Although an important moment in the history of English bookbinding, it was short-lived, and due to a variety of reasons--from a lack of adequate staffing and proper training to accusations that the bindings were actually the work of Karslake's Hampstead Bindery--the Guild folded in 1904.