Gold-Tooled Bookbindings And Contemporary Collectables. 1500 – 1800. Chapter 7: Designs based on Gardens including Cottage Roof Designs By Ian Andrews 214
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Gold-TooledBookbindings
AndContemporaryCollectables.1500 – 1800.
Chapter 7: Designs based onGardens including Cottage Roof
Designs
By Ian Andrews214
Figure 1. A parterre from the gardens of Het Loo,Stadtholder William III and Mary’s Palace at Apeldoorn,
Holland. The gardens at Het Loo were designed to the orders of
William III in 1684. The picture shows an example of the way
in which hedging was sculptured into the traditional scrolling
forms of stylised foliage. The shapes of the flower heads and216
the bobble on the stems clearly correlate with forms of the
lotus.
Designs Based on Gardens
From the middle of the seventeenth century to the turn of the
eighteenth, a particular group of book cover designs
demonstrates a clear variant on the strapwork style. While the
designs are again characterised by ribbon structures, which
link the centre and corners with each other, and with other
elements of the design, their nature and function differ in
several fundamental ways from those of the various strapwork
designs described in the previous section. Specifically, they
are defined by single, or more usually, double lines on both
edges, and join. but never cross over, each other. The
resulting geometric pattern creates symmetrically divided
areas which bear a striking resemblance to flower beds and
borders in a beautifully arranged garden of the type which,
well before the seventeenth century, had come to be regarded
as a major art form and an essential possession of the
wealthy. Given that fine books with elaborately decorated
covers were also commissioned by the rich for inclusion in
their libraries, it is not surprising to find the one
apparently imitating the other.
Such imitation of gardens had already been seen for centuries
in floor coverings, which offered similar scope for geometric
217
layout and elaborate floral decoration. Persian carpets, for
example, had long featured groves of trees and beds of flowers
divided by water channels, and with pools at their
intersections. Such designs were particularly favoured by
Safavid and Mughal weavers and, since carpets were considered
suitable gifts for presenting to visiting dignitaries, they
became well-known and highly desired by royal families across
Europe. King Henry VIII of England, for example, possessed
over eight hundred such carpets, fifty to sixty of which were
as large as five by ten metres.i From the fifteenth century the
decoration on Persian book covers had clearly demonstrated the
calibre of design that could be produced on bookbindings
through the acquisition of design concepts from gardens.
Inspiration could be drawn by binders and their patrons both
from carpets and from the exquisitely woven fabrics, initially
traded from the East through Persia and Turkey into Europe,
and subsequently replicated in France and Italy, In the
seventeenth century, silks, velvets and damasks, interwoven
with gold thread, from Lyons and Italy, particularly those
woven in the brilliant colours and flower garden designs known
as jardinière or à parterre, were the most highly sought after.ii
Geometric designs for gardens were common in Europe throughout
the period 1500 to 1800. Famous among them were Eleanora of
Toledo’s Boboli Garden, begun in the mid-sixteenth century,
following her purchase of the Pitti Palace, and finally
completed in the mid-seventeenth by Giulio and Alfonso
Parigis, the Hortus Palatinus, in Heidelberg, constructed to
218
designs by Saloman de Caus from 1612-18 for Frederick V and
his Queen, Elizabeth Stuart, and the gardens at Hampton Court
Palace, begun by King Henry VIII in the 1530s, developed by
Charles II in the 1660s, and significantly enhanced when
William of Orange became king in 1688. These gardens were
based on the medieval knot design, in which the garden space
was divided by the use of paths into quarters, and further
subdivided into smaller beds in whatever degree of complexity
the owner chose, resulting in the preservation of multiple
directions of symmetry.
Garden designs of the seventeenth century evolved from the
rectilinear knot styles demonstrated in the work of de Vriese
Figure 2. Several collections of designs for knot gardens were published, such as Thomas Hill’s The Gardener’s Labyrinth of
1608 Figure 3 showing that gardens in that period were expected to incorporate puzzles and conceits, banqueting
houses and topiaries. A century later, in his translation of
D’Argenville’s work, The Theory and Practice of Gardening, John James
describes the essential distinction between the formal gardens
of the previous century and the newer concept of the
landscaped garden. Several different designs for these are
shown in Figure 4. While the fullest extent of the garden should be visible from the house, there should be vistas in
the groves and palisades that surround it, so that the ‘eye may
pierce the trees to discern the beauties of the prospect on
every side.’ The garden should be rectangular and walled,
though the walls should be pierced with grilles or other 219
openings so that the views may be continued beyond them, and
it should be designed around the great walks and set with
stands of trees, arranged in quincunx, with galleries,
labyrinths and fountains, canals and statuary. Many of the
designs of this century, were in the style, à la française, and
were often influenced by classic Chinese gardens, which
usually included a lake, rolling lawns, groves of trees and
recreations of classical temples. In practice, this made it
possible for paths to be straight, circular or curling into
complexities as intricate and convoluted as their owners and
designers could conceive.
The importance of these walks or paths, and the shapes they
define, can be seen in these examples, and it is these which
are so often mirrored in the designs on fine books of the
period, as well as the abundance of motifs of flora and
foliage that they contained within them. Whether this was a
conscious attempt to reproduce a garden in miniature, or
merely the transfer of common patterns and motifs from one art
form to another, the similarities are striking and worthy of
exploration. It was a particular feature of sixteenth century
gardens that they were enclosed spaces. Gardens were
surrounded by high walls and tall hedges and some bookbinding
designs of the last few years of the century are characterised
by equally dense infestations of impenetrable leafy foliage,
perhaps in emulation of the protective realities of such
foliage in their patron’s gardens. Figure 5 is a fine exampleof this simulation of nature on a binding of the period.
220
Figure 2. One of many designs for formal gardens by Hans Vredeman deVriese 1581iii.
221
Figure 3 . An example of the style of garden of the early seventeenth
centuryiv.
222
Figure 4 . Design for a garden from John James’, The Theory and Practice of
Gardening. Published in 1712, this James’ book was a translation of, La Théorie
et la Practique du Jardinage by A J D d’Argenville that had been previously
published in Paris in 1709.
Common to these ‘garden’ designs on book covers is a central
feature of regular geometrical shape, which in the seventeenth
century was round or oval, but by the eighteenth, was more
often octagonal. Above and below this are smaller symmetrical
shapes providing convergence points for the network of
‘paths,’ which serves to divide up the whole space. The
resulting ‘flower beds’ around the central area are often
decorated with simple semy patterns, while the outer ones tend
to contain large, branching, leafy sprays. This division of
decoration between the various ‘beds’ may correspond to the
way different plants were placed in beds in actual gardens.
Those beds towards the centre and along the paths were often
‘planted’ with motifs of small flowering plants such as
hyacinth, anemones, cowslip and iris, herbs such as rosemary,
thyme, and hyssop, and miniature ‘hedging’ sculpted from box,
rosemary or cotton lavender. Meanwhile, the outer beds were
accorded space both for the width and height of plants,
including monks hood, holy oaks, lilies, and bushes such as
roses, red currents, gooseberry and sweet briar. A sense of
natural wilderness might be created with honeysuckles, wild
vine, lavender and viburnum.v While these species of plants 223
were not literally represented on book covers, it certainly
seems likely that both the sense of order and the
differentiation between parts and features of the garden
inspired a number of designs for book covers during this
period.
A simple, but nevertheless effective, division of the
rectangular space offered by the book cover is achieved on a
striking early eighteenth century English binding Figure 6, where the ‘paths’ create four identical ‘beds’ around a
highly ornamented central feature which, in an actual garden,
is likely to have been a fountain. Within the four resulting
‘flower beds’, the decoration consists of a single, very
extensive, pot-mounted plant-form. This essentially represents
a single, large flower head on a long, straight stem, with a
large number of curving and undulating side stems, each with a
tiny rosette flower at its tip. At each end of the garden are
feature ‘flower beds’ in which the decoration is of a
completely different style, abstract, dense, and similar to
the style of ‘crestings’ that adorned the tops of ironwork
gateways which, in their turn, create a sense of enclosure.
Central ‘beds’ exhibit octagonal structures and there are
secondary design foci above and below the centre. Complex
arrangements of paths link these together, and with the outer
pathway. Most of the flower beds are filled with semy designs
of dots and small motifs, while larger plant forms appear in
others. The overall impression is of a well laid out garden,
224
with plants of all sizes, from small annuals and bulbs in the
central beds to tall shrubs in the outer borders.
The significant feature of these garden designs, made in Rome
for Popes, Cardinals and Bishops, is the incredible complexity
of their layout, coupled with the delicacy of decoration, the
fineness of which is strongly reminiscent of lace. Figure 7 The date of these bindings coincides with the establishment of
the gardens at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence,
which may account for the particular interest in gardens in
Rome at that
time.vi They
progress
from
225
compartmental designs, containing a range of stylised plant
forms in the early seventeenth century to totally abstract
versions in the early eighteenth century, in which the content
of the flower beds has been reduced to a variety of semy motif
patterns.
Figure 5 The totally infested foliar style that was typical of the short period around the turn of the sixteenth to seventeenth
226
century. This example is on the French binding of, Les Essais de Montaigne, bound in
Paris in 1595.
227
Figure 6 . Garden design in which the space is divided intofour equal beds with a central feature. It is significant that
each bed contains a single large, daisy-flowered, plant
growing from a pot. At the top and bottom centres are
decorative features of very similar shape to the contemporary
scrolling decorations that were mounted above gateways, known
as ‘Crestings’. The shape of the leaves in this design are
more natural than those of Figure 5 , of the late sixteenth
century.
Cresting formations are a common feature of all of these, and
always located at positions in the design corresponding to the
‘haha’ viewing places at the ends of the principal axes of the
garden.
From the second half of the seventeenth century onwards, quite
wide borders composed from a dense arrangement of petits fers
tools, simulating the appearance of more realistic flower
borders, became common, often based on small, rather stylised,
plant motifs endlessly repeated around the edges of the cover.
The 1716 binding of The Book of Common Prayer, Figure 8 displays
a highly regimented design consisting of serried rows of small
plant-like motifs arranged in a wide border, but revealing a
precisely rectangular central panel of plain leather. All the
plant motifs have straight stems, the inner layer being
especially long and close together, with the result that the
overwhelming visual impression is of an array of parallel
lines. The border consists of two layers, each containing
alternating floral motifs, closely packed and repeated. In the228
outer layer, these are all daisies, while in the inner layer
these alternate with ‘tulips’, one of whose petals is extra
long, and protrudes, tongue-like, beyond the others. The
precise border structure has been maintained through the
corners by careful mitring, which is so well concealed as to
be totally unobtrusive. These borders are characterised by
very clear definition: the motifs do not completely fill the
border, but stand out in gold very clearly against the plain,
polished expanse of leather background.
By the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the
tooling in the borders becomes denser and, particularly in
France, extremely elaborate, usually with scalloped inner
margins in the style described as à la dentelle. The borders of
this period appear very densely filled with broad leaves of
scrolling acanthus, so deeply detailed that they exude a
unique impression of realism. In some versions the border is
so inundated with substantial, heavily-gilt, pseudo-
architectural motifs that they project a ceremonial
magnificence. The foliage in designs of the late eighteenth
century tends to be reduced to a smaller number of larger
elements, such as flowers and scrolling leaves. It is a
feature of leaves at this time that they are streaked as if
the tooling has been cut to simulate the natural veining in
the leaves. Figure 9 In these ‘herbaceous’ border designs,
the outer edge of the cover is always taken as ground level,
with the plants portrayed as growing upwards towards the
centre of the cover. Since paths never appear in this group of
229
designs, it is presumed that the intention was to draw
attention to the flower borders themselves, perhaps as might
have been seen from an upstairs window. Alternatively, this
style of representation may be the consequence of multi-point
perspective construction used to capture an impression of
walking around the outside of the flower beds.
The design on the Histoir Sacree of 1756, Figure 10, appears to have the same lack of formal structure as a slightly wild
flower border, yet the impression has been most carefully
constructed. It is a parallel border defining a rectangular
inner panel, the sharpness of which has been greatly softened
by the thistle-like flowers at the corners and along the sides
that slightly encroach into it. The fundamental structure of
the border is the rolling sinusoid, a popular eighteenth-
century feature. A central, wave-like line can be followed
through the foliar scrolls right around the outer part of the
border. Inside the scrolling foliage is a band of alternating
small plant forms. Despite the regularity of this structure,
the border appears relaxed and natural. This effect is created
by the fineness of all the foliage stems and leaves, and by
enhancement of the scrolling foliage with numerous flower
heads, precisely placed, but not in repetitive sequences.
By contemplating the changing styles of gardens and the
growing interest in plants, it is possible to discern insights
into aspects of each that were the pre-occupations of the
patrons of bookbinding at the time. Thus from the mid-
seventeenth century till the early eighteenth, designs whose230
structure relied for its definition on a different form of
strapwork could be construed as having been intended to
capture the feeling of ‘walking gardens’, Enshu’s concept of
spaces to be enjoyed by walking along complexes of paths.
Considerable similarities of layout have been discovered
between gardens of the time and designs preserved in gold on
book covers. Axes of symmetry and the multiplicity of possible
routes for exploration around and amongst the many small
compartments on the covers of their books were often seemingly
made real by indications of plants that might have been
growing within them. This period saw greater realism
influencing the way plants were represented in the gold
imprints and the need to capture the appearance of dense
borders stocked with tall plants clearly became something of
an obsession as the eighteenth century moved towards its mid-
point.
Consideration of this group of designs began with the
recognition that while their structure was defined, like those
of the strapwork style, by a ribbon element, the manner in
which the ribbon was used was significantly different to that
of strapwork designs. It is the nature of this difference in
usage that drew attention to the parallel with garden paths.
The correspondence in time between the occurrence of these
designs on book covers with the fashion for a new degree of
structural formalism in the design of magnificent gardens as
an important adjunct to a fine house prompted a focus on the
similarities of layout between the two. We have shown that
231
there are strong indications between the two such as to
support the proposition that the designs on book covers were
intended to convey aspects of the appearance of contemporary
gardens.
i Sim A Pleasures and Pastimes in Tudor England, Pub. Sutton Press, Stroud, Gloucester, England 1999 p 23. ii Dupont-Auberville M Classic Textile Designs, Pub. Studio Editions 1995, Chapter XXXVIII Seventeenth Century Silks.iii Plate 13 in Architectura de Oorden Tuschana, Antwerpen 1581.iv Sim A, Pleasures and Pastimes in Tudor England Pub. Sutton, Stroud, Gloucester,England, 1999 p28.v Harris J and the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Nurseryman’s Catalogue in A Garden Alphabet, Pub. Octopus Books, London 1979. Fisher J, The Origins of Garden Plants, Pub. Constable, London 1989 p 51-2. Sim A, Pleasures and Pastimes in Tudor England, Pub. Sutton, Stroud, Gloucester,England, 1999 p 27.vi Alberta Capitelli, The Vatican Gardens, An Architectural and Horticultural History. Pub. Abbeville Press 2009.
232
Figure 7 Missale Sacra Ordinis Praedicaturum, Rome 1644.
bound for Geronimo Borghese, Bishop of Pienza.233
vii
vii Maggs BB of GB No 123 p 95.234
Figure 8. The Book of Common Prayer and Administration ofthe Sacraments.
Oxford 1716 in the style of Roger Payne. viii
viii Maggs BB of GB No 123 p 95.235
Figure 9. Sedaine, La Reine de Golconde c1775, bound in a
ceremonial style for presentation to the king.The foliage in
this style of design all the foliar items are portrayed much
larger than on the earlier petit fers designs. Flower heads are
shown ‘full on’ and the leaves scroll luxuriantly and are
‘veined’ as was the style of the time. There is a far greater
degree of realism in the appearance of this foliar border.
236
Figure 10. Histoir Sacrée 1756
237
Cottage Roof Designs
In the second half of the seventeenth century a style of
binding decoration evolved, unique to England, that has become
known as ‘cottage roof’. Its major period of popularity was
from 1670 to 1690, after which it remained in use, though at a
lower level, until the end of the first quarter of the
eighteenth century, and is occasionally observed right up to
the end of the century. The essential features of this style
are pairs of roof elements of the style architecturally known
as an ‘open pediment’. They are shallow forms in the shape of
isosceles triangles, located above and beneath a central
rectangular panel. The appearance of the triangular structure
is clearly indicative of a roof though the precise shape of
this roof throughout most of its period of fashion is scarcely
representative of the roofs of buildings as they were in
England at that date.
The earliest designs in this style on bindings appear to date
from the mid-seventeenth century, when the shape of the roof
pediments closely resembles the imitation Greek and Roman
temples so popular in fine gardens of this period. Figure 11Nearer the end of the century they became much more shallow
and this tendency continued throughout most of the eighteenth
century. From the early 1680s.until the end of the eighteenth
century, the ‘roof ‘ in these designs became more hollow and
slender, its tips usually extending significantly beyond the
vertical edges of the centre panel, resulting in an effect238
similar to the traditional Chinese gate of welcome, replicated
in the increasingly popular garden feature of the Chinese
pavilion. Figure 12 From the Restoration, and to some extenteven before, London became the major centre for trade in
Oriental ‘objets de luxe’, and the arrival of the Portuguese
princess, Catherine de Braganza, in 1662, brought furnishings
and perquisites of exotic richness from the Indies previously
unknown in England. It is also possible that the strict
triangularity of the roof shapes found in cottage roof designs
derive from those of Japanese tea houses, like those in the
designs by the great contemporary Japanese garden artist,
Kobori Enshu.
The evolution of the cottage roof style may be traced in
experiments with triangular structures earlier in the
seventeenth century. In these early forms, the triangle is
usually equilateral, curvilinear, with pitch angles of around
60°. Any ornamentation around them seems casual and without
any clear structural purpose. Once established as elements in
a specific design style, the triangular elements are
unmistakably, roof-like, defined with a single line, or later
a tramline, and embellished with ornamentation, within and
around the pediment, as shown in Figure 13. They are often ofthe ‘broken pediment’ form, that is with a break in the top
centre which was ideal as a convenient location for an
additional decorative motif. The indent in the peak of the
roof is most often of single, part-circular, form on bindings
of the seventeenth century and more usually of trefoil or239
similar shape in the eighteenth century. Roofs of this type
were never employed as isolated design items but always part
of a formulaic construction consisting of a pair of roofs, one
at the top and the other the bottom of the design area with a
rectangular panel between them. Throughout their period of
usage it appears that the construction was built up from
various individual tools.
On the earlier versions, the side walls of the central panel
often have gaps at the centre, while later the mid-points
themselves become developed into decorative structures. The
entire structure in late seventeenth century bindings by the
Mearne’s workshop, together with some designs of the first
quarter of the eighteenth, is usually drawn as a single
continuous entity and stands out, reserved in plain polished
leather. In this style these, ‘all-over’ designs look
significantly more unified than those of the previous century,
filling more of the board area rather than being set within an
outer border. Inside the central panel, ornamentation in the
centre-and-corners style became the characteristic feature and
was always loosely based around a central lozenge shapeix.
Several of the characteristic features of the cottage roof
design can be distinguished by date, particularly, whether a
lozenge shape is indicated by the centre-and-corners
composition, whether the corner sections are edged with some
ix The occurrence of a lozenge shape within the cottage roof design was mentioned by Howard Nixon in his notes in connection with plate 35, Five Centuries of Bookbinding, Scolar Press, London 1978.
240
form of outline, either linear, inlaid or with drawer handles,
whether the decoration is foliate or involves spirals, and if
there are additional plant stems, whether they are straight or
undulating. Close analysis shows that if some indication of a
lozenge shape is explicit then the binding is more likely to
have been decorated in the eighteenth rather than the
seventeenth century, whereas if the corners are defined by
some type of outline, then it is almost certainly from the
seventeenth. Spirals as the main motifs in the corner
ornamentation point to an eighteenth century date. Long,
undulating stems are typical of seventeenth century bindings,
straight stems of the eighteenth. In general, if the
ornamentation in the corners is complex, fine and delicate,
such as to be describable by the term ‘lacy’ then the binding
is most likely to have been seventeenth century.
Cottage roof designs of the earlier eighteenth century often
exhibit a great clarity and elegant precision. By the end of
the third quarter of the eighteenth century, while the slender
form is still observed, roof shapes are sometimes seen that
show reversion to the original high pitch. In this period
pitch angles may again reach 60°, the base line of the roof
was re-introduced and the roof sections no longer appear to be
explicitly a part of any larger structure. While this might
appear to indicate a return to the style of its immediate pre-
cursors of the 1660s, it is more likely to be the result of a
major design change from the cottage roof to the lozenge.
241
242
Figure 11
243
Figure 12
Figure 13. Holy Bible containing the Bookes of the Old and New Testament. Probably
bound by Samuel Mearne c1674. This picture shows a cottage roof
decoration of a somewhat usual design. Apart from the unified roof and
panel structure with outgoing ornaments at the midpoints which effectively
indicates it as seventeenth century, the entire internal decoration within244
the centre panel consists of a vast array of drip-leaf fronds. At first
glance, the appearance of this design is strongly reminiscent of the dense
foliate designs of the first years of the seventeenth century by Le Gascon,
Lortic and others. The long, caterpillar-like fronds with their undulating
stems, covered with drip-shaped leaves, and the ‘pot pouri’ balls around
the cottage roof structure, are indicative of a late seventeenth century
design. By comparison, the leaves on the earlier bindings were merely the
featureless basic citron shapes.
On the earlier versions, the side walls of the central panel
often have gaps at the centre, while later the mid-points
themselves become developed into decorative structures. The
entire structure in late seventeenth century bindings by the
Mearne’s workshop, together with some designs of the first
quarter of the eighteenth, is usually drawn as a single
continuous entity and stands out, reserved in plain polished
leather. In this style these, ‘all-over’ designs look
significantly more unified than those of the previous century,
filling more of the board area rather than being set within an
outer border. Inside the central panel, ornamentation in the
centre-and-corners style became the characteristic feature and
was always loosely based around a central lozenge shapex.
Several of the characteristic features of the cottage roof
design can be distinguished by date, particularly, whether a
lozenge shape is indicated by the centre-and-corners
composition, whether the corner sections are edged with some
form of outline, either linear, inlaid or with drawer handles,x The occurrence of a lozenge shape within the cottage roof design was mentioned by Howard Nixon in his notes in connection with plate 35, Five Centuries of Bookbinding, Scolar Press, London 1978.
245
whether the decoration is foliate or involves spirals, and if
there are additional plant stems, whether they are straight or
undulating. Close analysis shows that if some indication of a
lozenge shape is explicit then the binding is more likely to
have been decorated in the eighteenth rather than the
seventeenth century, whereas if the corners are defined by
some type of outline, then it is almost certainly from the
seventeenth. Spirals as the main motifs in the corner
ornamentation point to an eighteenth century date. Long,
undulating stems are typical of seventeenth century bindings,
straight stems of the eighteenth. In general, if the
ornamentation in the corners is complex, fine and delicate,
such as to be describable by the term ‘lacy’ then the binding
is most likely to have been seventeenth century.
Cottage roof designs of the earlier eighteenth century often
exhibit a great clarity and elegant precision. By the end of
the third quarter of the eighteenth century, while the slender
form is still observed, roof shapes are sometimes seen that
show reversion to the original high pitch. In this period
pitch angles may again reach 60°, the base line of the roof
was re-introduced and the roof sections no longer appear to be
explicitly a part of any larger structure. While this might
appear to indicate a return to the style of its immediate pre-
cursors of the 1660s, it is more likely to be the result of a
major design change from the cottage roof to the lozenge.
246
Figure 14. This binding illustrates many of the features that definecottage roof designs of the late seventeenth century. The design has a pair
of isosceles triangular roof sections, unbroken and with a partially
defined central panel. Within this are corner decorations of floral nature
defined with a double outline which is further enhanced by a sequence of
drawer handle motifs. There is no clear indication of a lozenge, either by
247
a defining outline or by a lozenge-shaped space. Hanging from the tips of
the roof are four undulating stems terminating with a large daisy head.
Quite apart from the dating significance of the structural components, the
roof pediments without trefoil indentation, floral corner decorations with
defined outline and the lack of a central lozenge, which all distinguish
this as a seventeenth century design, there are other items that are also
particularly indicative of that century. The most common period for daisies
and drawer handles were the 1670s and 1680s. The peak period for undulating
stems and for flower heads being placed on the tips of stems were the
1680s.
248
Figure 15. The binding of, Comitia Westmonasteriensium, bound in London
1728.
The features on this binding are specific to the eighteenth century
appearance of designs in the cottage roof style. In particular, the shallow
roof overhangs the walls of the central panel, the peak of the roof has a
trefoil indentation and the lower cross-member of the pediment is missing.
The sides of the central panel have decorative additions at their mid-
points. Within the panel is a centre and corner decoration based on sea-
shell spirals and a clear lozenge is defined by a garland as well as the
form of the central medallion. Further garlands, essentially straight
suspend from the tips of the roof. Additional items in this design that are
indicative of it being of the eighteenth century include the usage of
garlands, the sinusoidal undulation along the outer edge of the border and
the use of buds and pitcher motifs on top of the roof.
249
Figure 16. William Andrews, Remarkable News from the Stars or, An Ephemeris for
1770. This binding shows an example of the later design style based around a
pair of equilateral triangular forms, located in the same positions as the
pediments in the cottage roof designs. While this format does appear to
have inherited some aspects of the cottage roof style, the usage and
ornamentation of the triangular elements is totally different and it might
appear more probable that the ‘roof sections’ in this are the explicit tip
sections of a large lozenge, most of which is barely intimated.
250
Figure 17. A more naturalistic style of garden on a London bindingof 1703. The design appears very much in the Cottage Roof style but without
the roof shapes. It features the lacy corner pieces and central lozenge,
shallow scalloping around the edges and a profusion of naturalistic plant
251
forms. Tulip flowers are dominant, many on undulating stems. Comparable
delicate definition of plant stems may be observed on designs through to
the late mid-century on both English, French and Irish bindings.
252
253
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