The Art Nouveau Influence...
The ornate cover designs continue in cabinet 7, where the Art Nouveau influence, with its stylised leaves, branches and flowers, is evidenced on the cloth covers of Langton Douglas' Fra Angelico, James Allen's A Kentucky Cardinal; and Aftermath and Alexander Gilchrist's Life of William Blake: With Selections from His Poems and Other Writings.
Cabinet 7
The History of Mankind. Friedrich Ratzel. London: Macmillan and Co. 1897 Dark blue patterned diaper-grain cloth. Title and author blocked in gold on cover and spine. Stylistic gold stamping, with an Art Nouveau influence, and later gold embossing of “Barr Smith Library” to cover, probably around the time of receipt in 1916, when item was bequeathed to the Library by Sir Samuel Way. Top edge gilt.
RB 572 R23
Australian Legendary Tales: Folk-lore of the Noongahburrahs as Told to the Piccaninnies. Collected by Katie Langloh Parker with Introduction by Andrew Lang. London: David Nutt. 1897 Navy cloth with gold debossed title and decorative native birds, including emus, a bustard, a galah, magpies, a mocking bird, a robin redbreast and a topknot pigeon. All edges gilt.
RB 398.2 S89
Bush Friends in Tasmania: Native Flowers, Fruits and Insects, Drawn from Nature, with Prose Descriptions and Illustrations in Verse. Louisa A. Meredith. London: Macmillan & Co. 1891 Publisher’s green cloth over bevelled boards, blind stamped in a criss-cross pattern with gilt title and publication date between outer blind stamped borders. Ornate debossed floral pattern surrounding a central oval crest, containing author’s overlaid initials (L.A.M). Title stamped in gold on spine and all edges gilt.
SR 581.9946 M55
Fra Angelico. Robert Langton Douglas. London: George Bell and Sons. 1900 Pale blue cloth, ornately debossed in gold. A strong Art Nouveau influence as evidenced by the highly stylised flowers and leaves, common to bindings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Central gold fleur-de-lis (French Lily) to cover and top edge gilt. Binder’s ticket to front paste-down reads: “Bound by F. Binns & Co., Adelaide.” Note: this item was not bound but only repaired by Binns.
RB 92 A582
Life of William Blake: With Selections from His Poems and Other Writings. Alexander Gilchrist. London: Macmillan and Co. 1880 Publisher’s blue pictorial cloth, elaborately stamped on cover and spine in gold with a very early Art Nouveau influence. Deckled (irregular shaped) page edges.
RB 92 B636.G1.2
A Kentucky Cardinal; and Aftermath. James Lane Allen. London: Macmillan and Co. 1901 Publisher’s original dark green cloth, decorated in the Art Nouveau style with gold stamped flowers and leaves, plus four cardinal birds. Debossed title in gold to cover and spine, and all edges gilt.
RB/WB 813 A427k
