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[Arts and Crafts needlework binding]
The Water-Babies
Estimate: £400 - £600
Auction: 18 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby by Charles Kingsley. London: Macmillan and Co., 1890. 8vo (18.4 x 11.6cm), viii 330 pp., contemporary needlework binding by Edith Bloxam after a design by Reginald Hallward, comprising silver and polychromatic silk threads embroidered on black filoselle silk ground on canvas backing over wooden boards, front cover illustrated with two cherubs flanking a tree against a background of a sun rising above stylised waves with fishes, heart-shaped cornerpieces, a simplified version of the same design to rear cover, all edges gilt, binding somewhat faded overall and with a few areas of wear, damp-stain to fore edge of textblock, lacking pp. 43-47, silk page-markers detached (laid in), endpapers slightly spotted and stained
Footnote
With a laid-in catalogue description from an exhibition of needlework bookbindings, describing the binding and identifying it as the work of Miss Edith Bloxam from a design by Reginald Hallward. Reginald Hallward (1858-1948) was a well-known painter and designer of stained glass, though we have been able to discover little about Edith Bloxam. Two embroidered bookbindings by Edith Bloxam after Reginald Hallward were displayed at the second exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, held at the New Gallery, 121 Regent Street, London, in 1889.