A beautiful gilt binding, yes – and look at that letter ‘B’! It’s in my logo and I had it adapted from this book. Slater writes very knowledgeably about the technical anatomy of books and also the foibles of collectors. The gorgeous gilt design is signed F C T and hints at the daring new art movement soon to be known as ‘Art New’. I’ve mentioned before that I rarely read books but incredible as it may seem I actually use this one; it has a handy list of Latinised place names. (This is true. I looked at it a few days ago to check that Taurinum means Turin. It does.) Tomorrow, as part of the run up to Valentine’s Day we’ll be looking at one of the loves of my life…
Swan Sonnenschein, 1892. First edition.
