Publishers' Arts And Crafts Book Covers

The use of book cloth, and Victorian machinery, revolutionised book production in the 19th century. From the 1860s onwards these cloth-covered books often featured beautiful Arts and Crafts designs, stamped in gold leaf and colour. Well known designers, including William Morris, Walter Crane and Dante Gabriel Rossetti supplied designs, as did less well known designers including Gleeson White, Laurence Houseman, A A Turbayne and many others. In this well-researched and well-illustrated talk Barry will show how these publishers’ everyday books made good design available to the many, and not just the few who could afford expensive hand-bound books.