Satires Against Mankind – a collection of designer bindings
Maggs Bros. are delighted to host an exhibition of contemporary designer bookbindings collected by Nicholas Fisher, on works by the Earl of Rochester.
I know exactly when my interest in fine modern bookbinding was kindled: shortly after 7.30 pm on Tuesday, 3 July 1979. The occasion was a lecture given by Ivor Robinson in Birmingham Central Library entitled ‘The Art of the Hand Bound Book’ which, I later learnt, was accompanying the first national tour of a collection of recent bindings being promoted by Designer Bookbinders to publicise the art. Oozing enthusiasm from every pore, Ivor Robinson made a powerful impression on me, not least through the powerful linear quality of his designs as well as the very evident quality of his craftmanship. If it wasn’t exactly a ‘road to Damascus’ experience, I was certainly hooked.
Having become fascinated as an undergraduate by the poetry of the 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647-80), I had had the opportunity just a couple of weeks or so before the lecture to acquire a copy of his most celebrated work, A Satyr against Mankind [1679]. Convincing myself during the week after the lecture that an appropriate way to mark the forthcoming tercentenary of his birth would be by commissioning a special binding from Robinson, I plucked up the courage to explore the possibility. A visit to his home in Oxfordshire ensued. As we discussed the poem, Rochester and his connection with Oxfordshire, and the binding I might have in mind (basically one in sympathy with the seventeenth century by being based on brown leather and gold tooling but having an obviously twentieth-century design) he became more and more enthusiastic about the project. Eventually he burrowed into his collection of skins to retrieve a magnificent example with the words, ‘Here’s what it needs – this is a very special skin. I’ve had it for years waiting for the right binding – and this is it.’ I was subsequently thrilled to accept his design, which brilliantly combined elements of a satyr, the human form and satire, and eight months later had the enormous pleasure of collecting the finished binding (1). It was a profoundly moving experience.
Over the next two decades, our relationship developed into friendship, and with our wives Olive and Pam we shared several lunches in some wonderful Oxfordshire pubs, culminating in an invitation to share in his golden wedding celebration at the iconic Bear Hotel at Woodstock. When suitably rare items relating to Rochester came on the market, and Robinson’s work schedule permitted it, he bound some further broadsides, and I was delighted with the way each related to the content (4), (6), (9). This last was especially memorable – partly because A Letter From Artemiza is my favourite Rochester poem, partly because I believe that it was the last commission Robinson undertook, and partly because the thinner line (so appropriate for its feminine subject matter) clearly did not require the physical effort needed for his previous bindings. His other binding, for the score of a setting of an excerpt from A Satyr against Mankind and some other verses, entitled Rochester Triptych, was also particularly satisfying because of its incorporation of his design for Satyr (which had also featured on the cover of the vocal score of one of the three parts) (7).
Much has flowed from my first meeting with Robinson. When, some months after receiving the first binding of Satyr, I had obtained a second copy, I sought his recommendation for a suitable binder top approach. He highly recommended a former student, James Brockman (acclaimed for his gold tooling), who in due course proposed a most attractive design; I felt, though, that with the number of its coloured onlays, it was a little too adventurous for my expectation, and he very graciously modified it to superb effect (2). Fairly swiftly, though, as I became more familiar with current trends, I felt I had been wrong not to accept his initial proposal, and in consequence when I approached Angela James (again on Robinson’s recommendation), I embraced without demur her proposed clever mix of the traditional and the contemporary and was thrilled with the result (5). Years later, I uncovered Brockman’s original design for Satyr and was grateful that he has allowed me to rectify a mistake by using it for a manuscript satire attributed to Rochester (25) – and the collection is definitely all the richer for it!
As a body, the bindings have a coherence provided by their contents – work by Rochester and his contemporaries – and in their varying responses to the texts valuably reveal a different facet of the poet’s quality; particularly informative are the two pairs of bindings that include an ‘Answer’ to Satire (1) and (4), (8) and (21) and the different responses to Satire: (1), (2), (5), (8), (13), (19), (23) and to Letter to Burnet (6), (14), (15). For me, none of these bindings has been a disappointment, and I am truly grateful to the artists (especially my ‘go to’ designer for a range of
bindings, Tracey Rowledge) not only for the pleasure I have been given, but also the deeper appreciation of Rochester’s skill that I have gained. Some of the designs are more traditional in style, such as George Miller’s binding of Johnson’s Dictionary (3) (the volume’s presence is justified by the fact that although Johnson did not quote Rochester in it, he recognised his poetic skill in Works of the English Poets) and Bernard Middleton’s beautifully simple and powerful craftsmanship, with or without gold tooling (!) (10), (11), (13), (17); other designs are mathematical in their precision (8), (14), (Q3), (Q5), (Q6) or imprecision (21), (Q7); others beautifully respond to Rochester’s wit, such as Flora Ginn’s inspiration of a contemporary design (Q4), Tracey Rowledge’s use of Rochester’s signature (Q1) and Calisto’s becoming a star (Q2), James Brockman’s response to a poem about St. Mary’s Church, Bow (20), the reference to the sharp bite of satire (22), (24) and more obviously the exploration by Geert van Daal and Tracey Rowledge of nothingness (12), (Q5), Derek Hood’s reference on his front and rear covers to contemporary portraits of Mulgrave and Rochester (16) and the use of lettering by Kaori Maki and Dominic Riley (18),(19). Throughout, obviously, is apparent the imaginative use of differently coloured leathers by most of the artists, and for the positive invigoration of the collection as a whole I am truly grateful.
It is a real privilege and pleasure to have been granted the opportunity by Maggs Bros., through the active and essential support and encouragement of Robert Harding and Ben Maggs, to share the pleasure I have received through these incredibly gifted designer binders. In retrospect, it reflects the unexpected impact of a what would have been anticipated forty-four years ago to be simply a regulation lecture. To express a sentiment not unfamiliar to Rochester’s contemporaries, deo gratias.
Nicholas Fisher, 1 April 2023
(on the occasion of the 376th anniversary of Rochester’s birth)
The exhibition is open at 48 Bedford Square from now until Friday June 16th.
Monday - Friday, 10:00 am - 5.00 pm.
A list of the bindings on display:
(i) Folios
1. Rochester, A Satyr against Mankind [1679]
bound by Ivor Robinson, 1980
2. Rochester, A Satyr against Mankind [1679]
bound by James Brockman, 1982
3. Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English language, 1755
bound by George Miller, 1982
4. Edward Pococke, An Answer to Satyr against Mankind [1679]
bound by Ivor Robinson, 1983
5. Rochester, A Satyr against Mankind [1679]
bound by Angela James, 1991
6. Rochester, A Letter to Dr. Burnet, 1680
bound by Ivor Robinson, 1993
7. John Joubert, Rochester Triptych for SATB and Organ, Opus 132,1994
score bound by Ivor Robinson, 1995
8. Rochester, A Satyr against Mankind [1679]
bound by Tracey Rowledge, 1999
9. Rochester, A Letter From Artemiza in the Town, to Chloë in the Country [?1679]
bound by Ivor Robinson, 2001
10. Rochester, Upon Nothing A Poem [1679]
bound by Bernard Middleton, 2004
11. attrib. Rochester, Female Excellence: or, Woman Display’d in several Satyrick Poems, 1679
bound by Bernard Middleton, 2004
12. Rochester, Upon Nothing. A Poem [1679]
bound by Geert van Daal, 2005
13. Rochester, A Satyr against Mankind [1679]
bound by Bernard Middleton, 2007
14. Rochester, A Letter to Dr. Burnet, 1680
bound by James Brockman, 2012
15. Rochester, A Letter to Dr. Burnet, 1680
bound by Jeff Clements, 2013
16. John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, The Enjoyment, 1679
bound by Derek Hood, 2016
17. Robert Whitehall, The English Rechabite, or A Defyance To Bacchus and all his Works. A Poem [1681], bound Bernard Middleton, 2016
18. Buckingham, An Exclamation Against Julian, Secretary to the Muses: With the Character of a Libeller [?1679]
bound by Kaori Maki, 2016
19. Rochester, A Satyr against Mankind [1679]
bound by Dominic Riley, 2016
20. Anon., Upon the Stately Structure of Bow-Church and Steeple [1680]
bound by James Brockman, 2017
21. Edward Pococke, An Answer to the Satyr against Mankind [1679]
bound by Tracey Rowledge, 2018
22. Buckingham, An Exclamation Against Julian, Secretary to the Muses: With the Character of a Libeller [?1679]
bound by Kathy Abbott, 2019
23. Rochester, A Satyr against Mankind [1679]
bound by Annette Friedrich, 2021
24. Buckingham, An Epitaph upon Thomas late Lord Fairfax [?1679]
bound by Shepherds, Sangorski & Sutcliffe, 2023
25. Rochester, Queries, 1679
MS bound by James Brockman, 2023
(ii) Quartos
Q1. Rochester, The Works of John Wilmot Earl of Rochester, ed. Harold Love, 1999
bound by Tracey Rowledge, 2000
Q2. J. Crowne, Calisto: or, The Chaste Nimph, 1675
bound by Tracey Rowledge, 2002
Q3. John Oldham, A Satyr against Vertue, 1679
Tracey Rowledge, 2007
Q4. Tho. Shadwell, Psyche: A Tragedy,1675
bound by Flora Ginn, 2009
Q5. Rochester, Upon Nothing. A Poem, 1711
bound by Tracey Rowledge, 2010
Q6. Rochester, The Earle of Rochester on Sr. Car Scroope, c. 1678
bound by Stuart Brockman, 2010
Q7. Rochester, A Letter fancy’d from Artemisa in the Towne To Cloe in the Country bound with John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave & John Dryden, An Essay upon Satyre, c. 1679
MSS bound by Lester Capon, 2021
