The Faerie Queene

London: J.M. Dent, 1897. Chivers bindings. Fine. STUNNING CHIVERS VELLUCENT BINDINGS. One of 100 large-paper copies, illustrated by Louis Fairfax Muckley. The three thick quarto volumes are elegantly printed on handmade paper and illustrated throughout with images and designs by the British artist and illustrator Louis Fairfax Muckley. The illustrations are magnificent and feature the plates in two states, red and black.

The bindings by Chivers, however, are the star of the show and perfectly complement the text. For the front boards, Muckley has created an intricate design featuring a knight and lady on galloping horses surrounded by decorative (truncated) borders and gilt titling. Each spine depicts a lady emerging from a colorful background, while each rear board has a stylized dragon seemingly jumping out from the binding. While the outlines of the designs are the same on each volume, they are each painted with different colors, creating a unique look and mood for each.

On Cedric Chivers’s “vellucent” bindings:

Chivers created a masterful binding technique in the late 19th century he called “vellucent” – a portmanteau combining “vellum” and “translucent”. The process was arduous, but the results were stunning, with artwork seeming to glow under a layer of thin protective vellum.

His process began with a decorative design—in the case of these volumes, artwork by Louis Fairfax Murray – created on paper or thin parchment. The artwork was then placed underneath a sheet of vellum that was extremely thin and specially treated to be translucent, allowing the colors to almost shine like a stained glass window. The final step was particularly tricky – since vellum is not particularly flexible, it required expert craftsmanship to lay it smoothly over the book's boards and spine without wrinkles or bubbles. The result is a binding that doubles as a work of fine art.

The bindings are stamped “Bound by Cedric Chivers” in gilt on the rear dentelles and decoratively written on the rear endpaper of volume 1 (likely by Chivers) is the note: “THIS BOOK IS BOUND BY / CEDRIC CHIVERS BATH / 2 COPIES ONLY WITH THIS DESIGN / THIS IS NO 1”. Anecdotally, however, we are aware of three copies that have been bound with this design (although without the written limitation).

Provenance: There is a note in pencil in the first volume that these are from the Robert Hoe collection, but we have not been able to confirm this.

London: J.M. Dent, 1897. Thick octavos (258 x 197 mm), vellucent bindings by Chivers. Text nearly pristine. A touch of bowing to bindings.

AN OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE OF CHIVERS BINDINGS IN UNUSUALLY FINE CONDITION. (Inventory #: 2945)