English Embroidered Bookbindings by Cyril Davenport

In the summer of 2025 I completed a binding commission on the book “English Embroidered Bookbindings” by Cyril Davenport. The book is a seminal work on the rich history and art of embroidered book covers in England, detailing techniques, materials, and the cultural significance of these ornate bindings, starting with the earliest known example, the Felbrigge Psalter from the 14th century. Since the very first fine binding I made, I have utilised sewn threads on the cover in some way. It was therefore a wonderfully apt commission to be entrusted with given my specialism.

The text block was a first edition from 1899, illustrated with 52 colour and black and white plates of early embroidered bindings, with an ornate title page inspired by The Kelmscott and the Arts & Crafts revival. The original cover was covered in light green buckram, with simple gilt title lettering on the front and top edges gilt.

Cyril Davenport was born in 1848 and was a British librarian, art historian and designer. He initially worked as a draftsman for the Royal Engineer Department of the War Office before joining the British Museum Library (now part of the British Library) in 1868. During his tenure, he became Superintendent of Bookbinding, retiring in 1913. He was regarded as an authority on the history of bookbinding and published extensively on this and other art and cultural history topics. 

Embroidery was applied to books in England as early as the 14th century, becoming particularly prominent in the 16th and 17th centuries, often featuring religious or heraldic motifs. These bindings typically involved embroidered textile covers applied to ready-bound books, using materials such as satin, velvet, canvas and various metallic threads, including gold and silver. Most embroidered bindings were produced by professional needleworkers. Davenport’s work highlights the “bookman’s” enthusiasm for books, particularly among England’s upper classes in the 19th century, with embroidered bindings representing a luxurious and often symbolic aspect of book ownership. 

I was pleased to find this book available on Project Gutenberg, which made it possible to search within the book for keywords. Project Gutenberg is a volunteer-run online library of over 75,000 free eBooks, primarily featuring literary works in the public domain. Founded in 1971 by Michael Hart, the project’s mission is to make literature and cultural works freely available to the public by digitising and archiving them. The books are free because their U.S. copyrights have expired, making them available for anyone to download and read. 

“English Embroidered Bookbindings” by Cyril Davenport is a detailed study of the art of embroidered book covers, written in the late 19th century. This work mainly focuses on the unique characteristics and historical significance of English bookbindings that feature needlework, illuminating how these covers reflect the artistic craftsmanship of their time. The opening of the book introduces the theme by emphasizing the previously overlooked nature of embroidered bindings in the larger discourse of bookbinding and decorative arts. Davenport reflects on how, despite their prevalence in England, these embroidered books have not been given thorough examination as a distinct subject. He notes the variety of designs found on embroidered bindings and the specific materials used, setting the stage to explore the artform that has a rich history and unique significance, particularly in the context of English craftsmanship. The text suggests a comprehensive classification of these bindings, highlighting their cultural and artistic dimensions. 

I was also able to buy a reprint of the book, which was useful to flick through although not all the 52 images featured in the original text block were included. The design of the commission was a surprise for the client so I had to do things is reverse order, by first posting up images of the completed binding on social media and my website and then working backwards to reveal images of work in progress, like in the case of this blog post. Many of my clients like a surprise at the point of delivery so I have to keep everything hush hush whilst making these books…!

The first stage when rebinding a book (unless you are binding a book directly from new folded sections) is to “pull” or “disbind” the book. Disbinding a book means to purposefully take it apart by removing the covers and separating the pages or page sections from the spine. In the case of this text block, the illustrated pages were printed on individual sheets that were tipped together on thin paper to join them. This paper was damaged and I didn’t want to re-sew the text block using this so I therefore decided to tip these pages onto new strips and opted to use a lovely green Satogami paper (see above left image). I also hand-deckled the foredge and bottom edges of all the pages.

The pages were going to be sewn onto four thin tapes, so I created a pricking template to punch the sewing holes into each section (see above centre image). The sections were then sewn onto four thin tapes (top right image).

Given the book was all about embroidery on different types of material, I thought it would be apt to experiment decorating the endpapers with printed fabric. I have a big roll of mull in my studio, which is a a specific type of open-weave, stiffened cotton fabric used to reinforce the spine of a book and attach the text block to the cover boards in simple bookbinding structures. I don’t actually use this material for my fine binding work but thought that the mesh-like weave would be great to print from. I used a large brush to apply red acrylic paint to the mull, and then laid down paper on top and used a hard roller to rub the back of the paper (below left image). These papers were then left to dry and I made up leather-jointed endpapers by gluing them to a bi-folded sheet of coloured paper and attaching a strip of thinly pared leather to it.

The made endpapers were then sewn to the rest of the text block, the sections were knocked up to the head and spine of the book and then it was placed in between boards with a weight on top. I applied PVA glue to the spine in between the tapes and left it to dry.

I then rounded and backed the book, making sure the shoulder of the book was the appropriate size for the thickness of the boards so that they would sit flush. The original top edge of the book was gilt, but this looked a bit grubby from age so I decided to plough this off in order to create a clean top edge to add new edge decoration (see below right image). The edge was sanded with Abranet after the ploughing to smooth it out.

As the printing of the endpapers from the mull was successful I decided to also try this technique out on the top sanded edge, to give an uniform feel flowing across the endpapers and the head of the book. I applied acrylic paint to the mull again, then transferred this onto the top edge of the book and rubbed the paint on through a piece of waste paper which worked very well (below left image).

I decided to trial something I hadn’t done before: a double-core endband with the primary core sewn with silk threads and the secondary core made off the book. I chose green thread to sewn the primary core, using a piece of cord to wind the silks around (see below right image).

As I had extra pieces of the printed paper left over, I decided to also use this pattern in the endbands for the book. I covered some pieces of laminated leather and vellum together with the paper to create a made endband for the secondary core.

The made endband was then stuck behind the primary sewn one to create a double tiered endband at both ends. The spine of the book was lined and then the core was trimmed level with the endbands using sharp scissors.

Once the spine was cut to size, the boards were bevelled and laced on and I could work out the size of the leather required to cover the book and finalise the design.

Embroidered bookbindings were a luxurious alternative to traditional leather bindings. They primarily flourished in England from the 16th to 17th centuries, with the earliest known example dating to the 14th century and experienced a revival in the Victorian era. These elaborate bindings, often featuring silk and metal threads on canvas, velvet or satin covers, adorned books of personal devotion, Bibles, and presentation copies for royalty and the clergy. The book was published at the end of the Victorian era and is a comprehensive study of the art of embroidered book covers in England, detailing their history, materials, techniques, and showcasing numerous examples. 

English ferns became a subject of widespread artistic and decorative interest during the Victorian era, particularly between the 1840s and late 19th century, a period known as “Pteridomania” or “fern fever”. This craze saw ferns and their motifs integrated into architecture, decorative arts, and botanical illustrations, reflecting a broader fascination with natural history and scientific discovery. It therefore seemed apt to use them as an adornment for a book published during this same era.

The flat nature of fern fronds makes them particularly adaptable for decorative applications, and wonderfully fun to embroider! I wanted the format of the design to work across the book, so opted for a wreath design that flowed around onto the leather doublures on both the front and back covers of the binding.

Having now been a bookbinder for a number of years, I have built up a fair amount of leather off-cuts in multiple colours! As well as thinly pared leather pieces, I have all sorts of splits from the reverse of leather skins, which result from thinning down the leather using a paring machine. These are really worth keeping as it expands the variety of colours available and they can be stabilised by backing them with thin lens tissue.

I planned my design and then cut the required leaf shapes from a template in order to shape the leather onlays correctly. I then used a tracing paper template to make sure that each of the ferns were glued down in the correct place on the covering leather.

The book explores materials like satin, canvas and velvet, which is what English embroidered bindings were historically covered in and whilst I wanted to feature these three materials in some way I didn’t plan to use them as part of the covering material. Instead, I opted to embroider smaller elements onto these three materials to display on the lid of the box in a design to match that of the book cover: ferns.

It was interesting to experiment with these three materials, and I worked on them in the same way as the covering leather: first applying leather onlays and then working stitches over the top of them. As the colour scheme for the cover design was a mixture of greens with red and white detail, I found white canvas, red satin and green velvet to work with.

I worked the fern design with round borders and applied the stitching. The velvet was very difficult to embroider as the nap of the fabric meany all my stitches seemed to disappear! I therefore had to adapt and make my stitches using thicker threads for this fabric.

I also wanted to add some goldwork threads into this binding. Goldwork embroidery is one of the oldest English embroidery techniques with records dating from before the 10th century. Traditionally goldwork embroidery was worn on ecclesiastical vestments and church trappings. Also, in Royal circles and rich aristocratic families, for them it was an ostentatious display of wealth and power.

The goldwork threads used to be pure gold and were flattened and wound around strands of animal and human hair, but because the gold was so brittle they were later wrapped around materials such as silk, animal gut, paper, or parchment. In the early days this was all done by hand, which made the cost phenomenal. Thankfully these days it is possible to buy metallised threads wrapped around a synthetic core which produce the same effect.

The reason for sewing these fabrics in a circular pattern was I found some brooches online that were sold in kit-form so that you could add embroidered material into them. I removed the pin backs from the inner discs so that they could lie flat.

I then attached the embroidered fabric pieces around these brass discs by first gripping them in position and then gathering the outer fabric on the back of the disc and stitching through a thread and pulling it taut.

The embroidered disc was then pushed into an outer frame and secured with little metal tabs that were attached to the back of the frame.

I commissioned a cherry wood box to be made to house the book in, which had three holes bevelled into the lid. These holes were lined with leather and paper before gluing the three completed brooches in place.

The stitches utilised for the binding to build up the design of the cover were: running stitch; Holbein stitch; couching; whipping; French knots and seed stitch.

I often get asked if I use an embroidery hoop: I don’t. The leather wouldn’t work in one anyway as it is too thick and rigid in comparison to fabric. Instead, whilst working on the embroidery, I keep the leather coiled and clipped with bulldog clips at either end. This means it is easier to hold the leather in my left hand whilst embroidering it with my right. It’s only clipped at the border of the turn-ins so there is no fear of the leather that will be positioned on the book covers getting marked by the bulldog clips.

I largely use very small (size 10) quilting needles to do the embroidery, they are great because they don’t pierce too large a hole through the leather. I don’t use a thimble – I think the ends of my fingers are toughened from years of embroidering leather!

What follows here are lots of pictures of the embroidery in progress, I just couldn’t decide which ones to not to use in this post as I think they are all fun and illustrate the progress of building up the stitches which is the bit I enjoy the most!

On the reverse of the leather I either tie knots in the threads to secure them (if the thread is thin), or in the case of thicker threads I fray out the ends and stick them down with PVA glue (see below centre image).

As I wanted to use thicker threads for some spiral details on the cover, these threads were couched down with thinner threads. Couching is a technique that uses a second thread to sew or “couch” a thicker or more decorative thread and is derived from the Old French word coucher, which means “to lay down”. I used the same technique to attach the goldwork threads too.

For the goldwork threads it was necessary to punch a small hole through the leather using my Japanese hold punch to allow for the thread to be passed through, as it was too thick to thread through a needle (see below left image).

I also added a series of French knots around the fern leaves to add a bit more colour detail.

The chaotic pattern of the threads on the reverse of the leather always interests me too – it shows the journey of all the threads!

Once the cover embroidery was complete I could turn to covering the forwarded text block. I made sure that the hollow was split to allow the leather to be turned in at the head and tail (see below left image). I wanted to add a title panel to the spine, so I left a recessed panel in the spine lining leather (below right image).

I laid out all the pieces of equipment I needed so that they were to hand and then then I dampened the front of the goatskin with water and applied three layers of paste to the reverse, giving time between applications for it to penetrate in. I also added some PVA glue to the joint areas of the text block to ensure good adhesion in this area.

The leather was turned in down the spine and the endcaps formed. Once the leather was on the book I left it under a weight overnight, changing the blotting paper regularly to draw out the moisture.

Once the covering leather of the book had completely dried, I was able to open the boards up and remove the capping materials, revealing the endpapers again. The leather joints were then stuck down, with a strip of Zerkall below to bring them up to the same height as the turn-ins around the boards.

As well as infilling and sanding the inside of the boards flush, I also made sure that the edges were painted with a layer of green acrylic paint to mask the colour of the sanded leather that was evident around the edges (see below left image). I planned to do edge-to-edge leather doublures on the book so I wanted a seamless look. Two thin leather panels were cut to size and carefully edge-pared using a French paring knife (see below central image).

The fern design was going to wrap around onto the doublures, so I carefully marked the position that the stems and leaves flowed around the boards on the covers so that they would match up.

The colour palette used across the design was then used to embroider a multicoloured arc on the rest of the doublures, to mimic the shape of the wreath design on the covers.

The final thing I needed to work on was the title panel for the spine. I used the title page of the book as reference and I carefully pierced out the letters from a panel of thinly pared green leather. I marked the letters using small pricked holes before piercing through the leather with a very sharp scalpel.

I tried to be as careful as possible when cutting out the letters, which meant I also had the cut-outs to use for a second title panel on the outer conservation box. I backed the green leather strip with some moon gold to illuminate the letters (see below left image) and then applied small seed stitch in a variety of colours to add detail.

The spine of the book had the covering leather moulded into the recess during the covering process. To ensure good adhesion of the label, I sanded the surface of the leather before sticking the completed title panel down with PVA glue.

The cover was also blind tooled to give a greater textural effect around the fern’s embroidery.

I deliberated for a long time over whether to title the lid of the box, and chose not to as I think that would have taken away from the impact of the three roundels – do you think I made the right decision…?

By complete chance, on receipt of the binding, the client pointed out that the cover design with the two halves of the wreath could be interpreted as the author’s initials: C and D for Cyril Davenport. This was a complete coincidence but wonderfully fitting!

If you want to see more images of this binding, please visit my website here.