86960 IMGR27

GILDINC AND TECHN1QUES OF DECORATION

(mm of leatha hangings had any influence on thc design of bindingt. It scems highly Improbabk: thc whok approach to a bookbinding design is ndically diflcicnt (on that inobed in the dcsigning of thc much larga and bolda panam ncccsury for a wall-hangmg. In the onumcntation of hoofchindmgs. bom, and odm objęta whae leatha was aflhred to a firm foundition, dcsigm were npwirf (at fint blind but lata with gold leaf) adag beaced stamps with dcsigm cut m idi^, (be objca being to idtitn a lasting surfitcc-pattan. Whacas in thc earlia, band-ooalcd fmLmtaa (but pcobably not earlia than the fltccnth cenimy) the surfoce. alrcady amscd with gold ar sdva leaf, was li&less unril bcoken up by mforiwg (that is, raising dctail in relief which can be donc readuy with tuuupported leatha using hcated punches (‘irons*) with dcsigm cut intaglb, quite diffcrent in characta from the stamps madc for impressing, thc purpocc here being to make the surfa cc t par kle. It is, in fact, morę likcly that the fuadtmtdltros pickcd up from the bookbinders thc idea of cnriching a gilt surfacc by punching. In passing, it nuy be taid that thc use of metal tumps and punchcs of many kinds, for decorating leatha, in all prohability reachcd Europę from thc African contincnt, no doubt as an off-shoot of ancicm skilk in tnctalwork. Stampcd leatha was found in thc tomb ofTut-ankh-amun.¹ What is tnore fdcvant to our ciwjuiry in thc field of bookbinding a thc authenticascd me of fineły tookd gold leaf ar * gromi in a Saracenic binding of thc Q'ran about 12 $6.* Era bor rtłevant is thc kind of bookbinding assodated with Vcnicc, in which the leatha is gilded all ova and then otnamented with indsing, punching and paintuig with colourcd glazcs: the same method was used for ornamendng coffers, boxcs and fumiture. But thc author knows of no cxamples dating from before the siatccnth ccntury and the prohability is that (his kind of binding was an ottended usc of the Vcnetian warioy («■>' /«w) of/mdmed ratha than the anrceedent of thc gold-tooliog techniquc.

Howeva, all thc foregoing concerm rdativdy latc devclopmcnts; for it is known that gold leaf was applied to katha in Roman times and thacfbrc its use in this manna was possibly familiar in Ibcria, which was a Roman colony. That tuch mataials were known in other Roman colonics is provcd by the discovoy in the Mithraic tempie on the banks of the Waibiook, in che City of London, of a smali fragment of leatha (Platę 731) dadng from thc sccond ccntury a.d. This was in pan gilded and was almoit ccnainły pan of a hanging. The leatha iadC probably goatskin, vcgcublc*unncd. is now black - as is most leatha recovcrcd from damp lod - but may once havc been colourcd, thc cootrast providing something ratha like what we undastand the early puinwin may nave been. We know that earlia mil thc gilding of katha was practised in Egjrpt The Museum of

»A fagnwnroflwrtig rmbotud wiSiihrhaddttii rfdupiiłfaiMł.kaiht—befToolłtw. is in thc Mumun of Leaihncrafi.

* Ricard, Protpg, 'Rrlium nurocuna du xiii*sieck*.in Httprrii, jpjj, 17,