[An album of photographs and verses compiled by Miss Outhwaite.] [ALBUM].

EMBOSSED ARABESQUE BINDING BY DE LA RUE & CO.

4to. [275 x 227 x 30 mm]. [24]ff of verses and photographs, the rest blank. Bound by De La Rue & Co. in full blue morocco, the boards embossed in blind with a central oval medallion of a cherub holding a cornucopia filled with flowers and fruit, the medallion is signed 'Boileau' on the lower left-hand side. The medallion has an inner narrow border of oak leaves and acorns and an outer border of acanthus leaves separated by three broad oval lines and enclosed by four more. The central oval motif is set within a rectangle border tooled in gilt with embossed flowers in the corners, signed at the foot by the binder. The rectangle is surrounded by a wide border of flowers and foliage and another gilt border, followed by a dual set of blind rolls to the borders. The spine lettered in gilt at the head and foot, embossed in blind with vases and ornaments with a central winged figured flanked by cornucopia. The edges of the boards tooled in gilt, the turn-ins tooled in gilt with a broad roll and ornamental flowers on each corner, embossed purple endpapers, gilt edges. (Minor rubbing to the spine, small repair to joint of the spine).

[c. 1835]

Overall in very good condition. Textblock made out of an assortment of coloured paper. A collection of verses written in manuscript, titles varying from "Address to Health" to "A Bunch of White Jasmine". Six photographs featuring Rugby School in Warwickshire, Dryburgh Abbey and Melrose Abbey in the Scottish Borders and St Mary's Church Lutterworth in Leicestershire. Also includes a loosely inserted letter and two prints.

Thomas De La Rue (1793-1866), originally from Guernsey moved to London in 1820 where he initially established a business in partnership with William Frederick Rock, producing and selling Leghorn straw hats and bonnets. This trade was not large enough to employ the workmen throughout the year so they began to emboss straw-coloured cardboard to imitate various plaitings of Leghorn and English straw. The novelty of the bonnets made them extremely popular. De La Rue then turned his attention to embossed imitation of silk for bonnets which also enjoyed considerable success. It was suggested to De La Rue that the machinery he possessed for embossing paper might be used for embossing cloth and by the 1830s he started to produce embossed leather for the covering of books, blotters and notebooks. (English Embossed Bindings 1825-1850, Eleanore Jamieson).

Stock no. ebc9227