Four beautiful and rare hand-painted bindings by the Bath bookbinder Cedric Chivers are included in the next Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood Rare Book Auction on 19th March 2014.
Cedric Chivers (BK11)
No doubt influenced by the wonderful bindings of Edwards of Halifax, of a hundred years earlier, Chivers perfected at the end of the nineteenth century a method incorporating a fine watercolour, sometimes even heightened with the addition of mother-of-pearl in a vellum binding.
Cedric Chivers (BK11)
The painting on paper was overlaid with a layer of finely skived translucent vellum, that way the painting was sealed, thus protecting the painting.
Examples of these fine and delicate bindings included in the sale are a 1909 edition of The Deserted Village; A’Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ, 1898; and Baroness Von Hutten, Our Lady of the Beeches, 1907; each with an estimate of £800-£1,200.
Cedric Chivers (BK11)
Cedric Chivers (BK11)