The Creative Craftsman

FARLEIGH (John) & WOMESLEY (Edward)

The Creative Craftsman

A THOUGHTFUL AND UNUSUAL BINDING

Reproduced photographs and line drawings printed in black throughout. 8vo., 22x14cm, [xii] 268pp. Later full red goatskin by Edward Womesley, upper cover with repeated tool of a hand in gilt surrounding a central black goatskin inlay taking the rough form of a human head, rear covers with design reversed having two gold tooled heads within a black goatskin onlay hand shape, spine lettered in gilt, black goatskin doublures, a.e.g., with presumably original fleece lined and black goatskin edged red cloth slipcase. London, Camelot Press, 1950.

£900.00

Near fine, slightest of fading to spine and faint handling marks to covers. Pencil attribution to Womesley to ffep. with date.

Edward Womesley was a surveyor turned amateur bookbinder, whose friendship with Bernard Middleton lead him to joining the Guild of Contemporary Bookbinders (forerunners of today’s Designer Bookbinders), where be held the position of secretary until 1967. Following Womesley’s death in 1982, his library was acquired by Maggs Bros. and the present binding features in Maggs catalogue 1908 issued in 1989.

A fabulously thoughtful and unusual binding on John Farleigh’s survey of British craft, which includes chapters on Guido Morris and Sandy Cockerell. Womesley’s use of alternating hand and head forms in gilt and black onlay both celebrates the intertwined skills of hand and mind which mark the finest craftspeople, and cunningly reflects the printed epigraph by T.S. Eliot:

’Between the idea

And the reality

Between the motion

And the act

Falls the shadow…’

Stock No.

258325

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