Gold-TooledBookbindings

AndContemporaryCollectables.1500 – 1800.

Chapter 6: Strapwork Designs

By Ian Andrews

September 2013.173

ianandrews00@gmail.com

50, Wellhouse Lane, Mirfield

West Yorkshire WF14 0PN

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Figure 1. Armour with etched and enamelled strapwork decorationMade for Nikolaus IV, Radziwill in 1555 by Kunz Lochner at Nuremberg.

Strapwork Designs.

The term ‘strapwork’ is used to define those designs where the

general structure is characterised by one or more narrow

ribbons, or ‘straps’, and enhanced with various additional

techniques of ornamentation. Marcais eloquently describes ‘a

design where the eye can willingly lose itself and find itself again…… its rhythm

controlled by a ribbon of constant width which composes the design as a whole,

intricate and balanced, luxuriant and coherent.’i On bookbindings, designs

delineated by ribbons of strapwork tend to fall into two

categories, border structures in which the complex

interactions generated by the ribbon or ribbons remain

contained within a space of approximately uniform width around

the outside of the cover area while the other is distinguished

by a configuration of discrete compartments, distributed right

across the design field, and the manner in which they are

connected together. In general strapwork designs are

characterised by the formality of their construction which

logically is an inevitable consequence of a design being laid

out and defined by ‘broad ribbons’ instead of by single lines.

As a result, the designs are visually ‘heavy’ and lacking in

tonal structure and fine detail and while these

characteristics distinguish the class of strapwork designs, it

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simultaneously separates them from virtually all other styles

of decorative design.

The design style that has come to be known as strapwork is

found in the art and architecture of a number of different

cultures, dating back as far as Sumeria around the third

millennium BCE. The use of ribbon-like strips to define the

design, the over-lapping of one strip over another, and the

inclusion of linking joins, appeared in carvings on the walls

of the Assyrian King Ashurnirpal’s palace at Nimrud dating

from the ninth century BCE. The style can also be observed in

various forms in late Roman mosaics and in Coptic, Lombardic

and Germanic art. The examples of Coptic and Roman forms in

Figures 2 and 3 show that ribbons were used to define theshapes of small compartments, and that these, in turn, were

joined by small linkages fashioned from the same ribbonwork. A

similar style is also found on Merovingian artefacts of the

seventh century, and is the basis for much Scandinavian

decoration around the end of the first millennium CE.

By the turn of the first millennium, Toledo had become the

centre of Muslim art and learning in Spain, and its reputation

was such that even after the re-conquest of 1085, its schools

continued to attract students from all over Europe, including

England and Scotland.ii Strapwork designs, with pierced ribbons

and linkages of many types, some with foliated terminations,

are seen on the Moresque carved ivory caskets, such as that

shown in Figure 4, which were made at Cordoba in the tenthand eleventh centuries. By the thirteenth, the style was

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widely evident in both major architecture and the decorative

arts of the Middle East, and in the fourteenth and fifteenth

centuries patterns of geometric interlace were employed in

silk weaving throughout southern Spain and north Africa.iii

In the early sixteenth century, the craze for strapwork spread

extensively through northern Europe. By mid-century, with an

increasing number of pattern books being published, it was

being applied in many areas of decorative art, and its

versatility meant that it could be used to decorate a wide

range of artefacts including suits of ceremonial plate armour

for royalty and others of elevated position. Figure 1 showsarmour made for Nikolaus IV, ‘The Black Radziwill’ in 1555, in

which the strapwork design is clearly visible on all parts of

the garniture. Henri II was portrayed making a ceremonial

entrance to Paris in 1549 on horseback with both he and his

mount resplendently capparisonned in garments decorated

overall with strapwork designs. Armour made for the young King

Charles II, embellished with similar strapwork demonstrates

that this style of decoration continued well into the

seventeenth century.

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Figure 2. Roman/Coptic Mosaic showing linked compartments

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Figure 3. Chretienne Book

Figure 4. Spanish carved ivory casket made for Abd al-Malik, son of

al-Mansur in 1004-5.

Arabesques

One of the precursors of the strapwork design which became so

ubiquitous in the sixteenth century was the arabesque. This

scrolling form was long established as a key element in

Oriental and Islamic designs for architectural decoration, as

well as on carpets and textiles. Figure 5 It is thereforelikely that knowledge of the technique was carried to Italy by

craftsmen following the expulsion of Jews from Spain in the

last quarter of the fifteenth century, and subsequently copied

by Italian artists. One of the first books of Moresque179

ornament to be published in Europe, by Francesco Pellagrini,

in 1530, included two forms, based on scrolling Arabesques,

one consisting of foliated stems in the style of Graeco-Roman

white vine ornamentation and the other a more abstract form,

consisting of straps or ribbons. Pellagrini had worked at

Fontainebleu under Fiorentino Rosso who had developed a new

strapwork ornament from the classical geometrical scroll.

Figure 6 is indicative of the transition between scrollingfoliar arabesques and more formally structured strapwork. In

this example neither form is dominant and both are drawn in

similar style and with comparable substance. The nature of the

leaves, the hint of perspective, the form of the scallop

shells, the bats and the various ties date the binding to

around 1540.

While most designs based on the scrolling arabesque treat it

as a non-foliar form, there are occasional examples, such as

those in Figures 7 & 8, in which the appearance of

anthropormorphic and phyllomorphic features suggest ancestral

connections with earlier Celtic forms, especially the Viking

Jellinge style.iv In these designs the ribbons are often of more

variable width, embellished with exaggerated leaf forms,

sometimes bird-like or fish-like, and, uniquely, feature one

strapwork ribbon passing through another. Figure 8, from abook bound for Grolieri, is an example of phyllomorphic,

eglomerate strapwork with significant leafy terminations. In

some bindings of this type, leaves, though more likely lotus

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scales, were used, like the epaulettes on military uniforms,

as ornaments on junctures and terminations.

Endless Knots

Small, brooch-like, decorative pieces of a type described as

endless knots are a feature of many binding designs of the early

sixteenth century. The earliest of these resembles a single

length of cord arranged in criss-cross fashion with the ends

joined together. While some, seemingly endless, designs on

bookbindings, are of this single ribbon form, they usually

consist of two or more fundamental shapes, such as a pair of

circles or rounded rectangles, depicted as passing through

each other or joined together like links in a chain.

It is a normal feature of endless knot patterns that the path of

the thread or ribbon can be followed by eye, even as it passes

behind another ribbon, in contrast to plaitwork, where the

thread or ribbon disappears from sight. Intrinsic to the

structure of endless knot work is its expandability, as

demonstrated by studies of carved stones which reveal that

even extremely extensive areas of Celtic knotwork were the

result of only a single continuous line.v Unlike plaitwork,

which acts as a ‘space-filling’ form of limitless expanse,

endless knot patterns have to be precisely devised to fit a

particular space.

The earliest usage of ornamental knots on bookbindings was as

small individual elements judiciously placed within otherwise

empty areas of a design. When constructed from ribbons of flat

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strapwork, ornamental knots were always laid out with the two

layers of thread crossing like the diagonals at the centre of

a rectangle. They were usually inserted as small ornamental

pieces at the mid-points of strapwork borders, and with the

passage of time, larger and more extensive areas of such

regular knotting are sometimes observed that may be so large

as to dominate the entire design area and appear more like

over-sized brooches. The binding shown in Figure 9, on a copy

of Cicero, bound in Paris by Claude de Piques for Grolieri, 1545-

50, not only boasts significant knotwork brooches ornamenting

the four corners and mid-points of the border but also a huge

knotwork lozenge that occupies almost one third of the central

decorative area.

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Figure 5 A detailed section of the sixteenth century Persiancarpet, known as the Ardebil Carpet, showing scrolling

arabesques with lotus flowers, split palmettes and long trails

known as cloudbands.

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Figure 6. Transition style between scrolling foliararabesques and formalised strapwork.

Mid-sixteenth century.

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Figure 7. La Sainte Bible, 1559. An example of theanthropomorphic style with arabesque stems threaded through

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fish heads and fantasy leaves and the whole design set off by

the densely dotted background.

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Figure 8. A binding made for Grolieri with a strapworkdesign in the eglomerate style

with exaggerated leafy terminations, bar linkages, three-

dimensional perspective and

loops where one strap is made to pass through another which is

an interlacing technique

very specific to designs of this type of the early mid-

sixteenth century.

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Figure 9. Cicero bound by Claude de Picques for Jean GrolierParis 1545-50.

Recti-linear strapwork design featuring extensive brooches of

endless knotwork.

There are two forms of endless knot, the first where the entire

knotwork motif consists of a single filament or cord, the

other constructed from several intersecting loops. The single

filament type is generally assumed to be limited to the

production of closely matted, ‘woven’ areas, such as are seen

on the Spanish Mudejar designs. With imaginative ingenuity,

binders created very sophisticated border constructions and

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the extension to multiple loops made possible vast new

opportunities for ornamental designs of ever-increasing

complexity. Since the knots were produced by ribbons, it is

possible to discern the origins of what became strapwork

designs in the intricacies of multi-loop knotwork. Figure

10, , is an example of the complexity that was achieved using

a series of small, simple loops. The design potential of a

single pair of intersecting loops varies from a simple cross-

shape to impressive, complex lozenge and frame designs and it

may readily be discovered by close analysis of most complex

strapwork designs that they have actually been contrived from

a very small number of loops. Analysis of the binding design

shown in Figure 11 reveals it to consist of four loops.

While, conceptually, a strap is considered to be a strip

having two free ends, examination of most strapwork designs

reveals that it is unusual to find terminations to the ribbons

defining the strapwork structures, since instead of

terminating when they reach the outer border, the ribbons link

in and re-emerge further up to commence another part of the

design. This seems to indicate that it would be more

appropriate to consider these designs to be developed from

endless knot constructions based on multiple loops. Indeed,

many early sixteenth century designs may be discovered to be

based on the use of multiple loop constructions. When two

concentric frames were conjoined some quite extraordinary

complexes of tiered borders and multiple lozenges were

produced. Figure 12, shows an example of an Italian recti-linear strapwork binding, believed to be from Bologna and

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dating from the early 1540s indicating extensive inter-

linkages, folded twists and mitre assemblies between the four

loops from which the design has been developed.

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Figure 10. The round frame surrounding the central round,patera motif is produced by four heart-shaped, endless loops

which also create the square frame around it. A further eight

loops secure this square frame to the outer border.

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Figure 11. A strapwork design consisting of four loops. Pomponius Laetus, Opera, Strasbourg 1510

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Figure 12. Multi-tiered strapwork border, Italian, mid-sixteenth century

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Cartouches and perspective

Strapwork was given added substance in the mid-sixteenth

century by the sudden enthusiasm for the use of perspective.

Three-dimensional representation was already in use in the

fifteenth century but attempts at true perspective were only

beginning to be apparent on memorial brass designs in the

sixteenth.vi On bookbindings, designs making use of perspective

were most popular from the beginning of the 1540s until the

end of the third quarter. On some, perspective is used to

enhance the central medallion by transforming it to the

appearance of a monumental cartouche, or frame in carved

stone, while on others, the result of applying extremely

exaggerated perspective simultaneously from several related

viewpoints creates the appearance of seemingly massive heavy-

engineering assemblies of vast dimensions and huge scrolling

terminations.

While precisely formed three-dimensional designs were possible

in many areas of artistic practice, such as items of

jewellery, the ambition of capturing the style on a book

binding was a challenge both to draughtsmanship and tooling

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technology. An early example of a cartouche in this style is

on a 1544 copy of Josephusvii. Figure 12, While clearly

attempting to capture the features of scrolling metalwork, the

limitations of tooling are readily apparent. What is also

interesting, however, is the way this cartouche has been used

as a central medallion amongst four corner panels in the

Persian style. Instead of adhering to the strict formula where

the outline of the central medallion would be expected to

match that of the corner pieces, it appears to have been

acceptable for a cartouche in the ‘new style’ to be merely

inserted in the central position where it clearly does not

fit,viii perhaps indicating that the heavily gilt centre-and-

corners design had had its day.

Later cartouches in the style of De Vriesix and Frans Huys,

Figure 13, were used as centre-pieces in strapwork designsbut were soon greatly extended to encompass the entire

decorative area of the book cover. Within these, it was often

the scrolling terminations that were given greatest

prominence, and they were drawn with greatly exaggerated

depth. The tendency to single out this ‘rolled cylinder’ for

greatest visibility continued into the later ‘fanfare’ era

when similar treatment was lavished upon the coils of pawl

motifs. Heavy cartouches with scrolling outer terminations,

devised to create impressions of deep three-dimensionality in

massive proportion, were a particular passion of the time.

Numerous books of designs were published in the 1550s which

fuelled the enthusiasm for simulating, vast, scrolling faux-

metalwork. 196

Figure 12. An example of a heavy engineering style scrollimposed into a plated centre and corners design.

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Figure 13. A three-dimensional design by Frans Huys.

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Enhancement of the earlier, ‘flat’, strapwork designs to

include rather exaggerated perspective and design elements of

massive proportion, resulted in some two decades, from the

late 1540s to the early 1560s, of visually astonishing, yet

demented, engineering, such as that shown in Figure 14, wherethe design resembles a huge metal ellipse supported by eight

massive scrolling lugs from the outer frame. The appearance of

these girder-style constructions is often somewhat

disconcerting since the construction of perspective in the

sixteenth century involved drawing in the substantiating faces

of the object from several different directions instead of

from a single point as is the present-day norm. This

frequently involved two vertical viewing points, one for the

upper half of the binding and another for the lower

half ,while in the design shown in Figure 15 the border iscontrived from two separate frame structures and the

perspective based on at least four viewing directions. The

advantage of this was that it enabled the appearance of

exceptional solidity to be given to each part of the design.

In some cases, the disturbing effect of this artificially

increased perspective, It is of particular interest to observe

that the date when ribbons first became defined by a single-

double outline coincides also with the early use of

perspective. By following the respective edgings around the

various compartments of a strapwork design, it is apparent

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that the manner in which the edgings have been employed very

effectively creates the semblance of sunken panels. With only

rare exceptions, the double line on the ribbons has been

contrived to follow right around certain enclosed areas and

the effect of this is to give the impression that these

compartments are set into the depth of the board, in the

manner of sunken panels on Persian bindings. The effectiveness

of this technique results from the way the individual

strapwork ribbons were arranged, so that the double-lined

edging was continuous right around the internal edge of all

the principal compartments. In a few rare cases, the ribbons

were constrained to meander right across the board, with the

consequence that these panels had a double line along one edge

and a single along the other, giving a more modern appearance

of perspective in which depth is only indicated on the more

distant edging.

The inclusion of perspectives into strapwork designs clashed

with, and subsequently usurped, the traditional

anthropomorphic characteristics of binding designs. Funny

heads and leafy tails were replaced by the elegant starkness

of dehumanised functional design, which, in its turn,

diminished to the more subtle definition of visual depth

achieved by a simple double outline along one edge of each

strap.

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F

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Figure 14. Peter Martyr D’Anghieri, De rebus oceanicis & orbe nouo

decades tres. c.1550.

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Figure 15. Trithemius, Compendium, bound for Thomas Laioli,

1540, together with the multiplicity of viewing positions from

which it was constructed, almost have the effect of a Escher

drawing.

Whole Field Designs

Fanfare designs

Strapwork designs extending over the entire cover are known

from the fifteenth century, largely attributable to Neapolitan

binders of the 1480s. Various examples of these bindings have

been published and show a completely single-outline ribbon

structure outlining borders of rectangular compartments around

central panels. The linkages between them are box-shaped, and

additional decorative effect results from the inclusion of

triple-unit flattened ‘barley sugar’ twists of zigzag variety.

Within the compartments, decorative ornamentation often

consisted of small elements of eglomerate knotwork.

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In the sixteenth century, two significant phases of strapwork

can be discerned. Before about 1560, strapwork designs tend to

be very cleanly defined, and devoid of any softening

decoration. Thin lines spiral amongst the strapwork structures

with mathematical precision and occasional stylised leaves.

The second phase, from 1560 to 1600, is characterised by a

busier field, and leaves portrayed in more natural shapes.

This trend towards increasing complexity continued into the

first part of the seventeenth century, by which time the

decoration seems to fill the field, with small panels standing

out like jewels from a ground of dense, natural foliation,

often including flower heads.

Two terms have been used to describe strapwork designs of this

period: ‘interlace’ and ‘fanfare’. The former is a general

descriptor, used to distinguish any design resulting from

overlapping complexes of ribbonwork, while the latter refers

to a specific, and highly distinctive, type of strapwork

design which has received more attention than any other.

Figure 16 shows an elaborate design in the ‘fanfare’ style.It is not surprising that the precise analytical techniques

developed in the study of gold-finishing tools should come to

focus on the highly structured ‘fanfare’ designs. Geoffrey

Hobson,x acknowledged as the leading scholar in this field,

established parameters to distinguish the design in the same

way that precise details of a tool might be defined. His

criteria for a ‘complete fanfare’ are that the cover

decoration is composed of compartments of various shapes and

sizes by a ribbon having a single outline to one edge and

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double to the other. The central compartment was the largest,

the most dominant and almost always elliptical in shape. Both

the compartments and the space between them were usually

filled with small floral and foliate tooling, while the ground

usually contained leafy sprays. The gold ornamentation was

produced by the use of small tools and fully covered both the

top and bottom boards and the back of the book. While Hobson

acknowledged the occurrence of earlier designs which lacked

some of the features or ornaments expected for a ‘complete

fanfare’ design, there are many bindings that while conforming

to his other criteria, pre-date the fanfare era, whether

single-line structures or ribbon designs withonly a single

outline to each edge. Both these styles are especially common

as border constructions and are discussed in that chapter of

this book.

While Hobson’s pioneering work has led to clarification of

this group of designs, it has meant that the terms ‘fanfare’

and ‘strapwork’ have almost become synonymous, even at times

interchangeable. However, it is clear that not all ribbons on

strapwork designs have one single and one double edging line.

My own analysis of the relative occurrence of the different

forms of ribbon edging indicates that, while it is usual to

find a single outline on one side and double on the other,

both single-single and double-double versions are not unusual.

Single-single edged ribbons are the most common form until the

middle of the third quarter of the sixteenth century, after

which they are less common, though becoming rather more

noticeable in the late seventeenth and mid-eighteenth

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centuries. The double-double edged form is considerably less

common and tends to be first seen on bindings at the beginning

of the fourth quarter of the sixteenth century, and

infrequently thereafter until the mid-eighteenth century. My

findings indicate that strapwork was almost entirely defined

with a single-single outline, whereas from then until the end

of the first quarter of the eighteenth century, single-double

outlining was the norm, after which the rules became more

relaxed. This correlates well with Hobson’s date for the

beginning of the ‘fanfare’ period.

It would seem that the ‘fanfare’ era, as defined by Hobson,

came to an end due to a marked shift in design away from the

combination that had typified the style towards a style that

reached maturity in what may be termed the ‘garden’ style. In

the first few years of the seventeenth century, some bindings

have small round frames used as spacers to link the main small

panels, their roundness making them stand out from the overall

ground like bright metal studs. In the middle decades of the

century, two types of feature dominate, either a preponderance

of broader, heavier, untooled bands or an arrangement having

the appearance of a set of medals laid out on a gold cushion

background. During this phase, foliage in its previous, semi-

realistic form is less apparent and the gold-tooling consists

of more dense areas filled with spirals, Paisley leaves and

similar geometric shapes. The plain heavy bands are still used

in the same manner as the earlier strapwork. In the final

phase, the bands are still plain and undecorated but are

handled with stolid formalism similar to the arrangement of

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paths in a garden. Bindings are characterised by division of

the field into a number of more rectangular areas, rather like

flower beds, and heavy, plain, usually straight, bands running

between them. Such designs are almost always symmetric about

the central vertical axis, and also at times the horizontal

axis.

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Figure 16. A very fine example of a strapwork designincluding precisely-drawn compartments of many different

shapes, with linked arm and scissors linkages and decorative

infill consisting of sea-shell spirals.

Linkages

A particular feature of all strapwork designs is the manner in

which the ribbons intersect, that is where they join or cross

over each other. In the ‘fanfare’ style, interactions of the

ribbons between compartments has resulted in the development

of a variety of decorative linkages, the appearance and usage

of several of which became standardised. Linkages of these

styles are observed in borders and close scrutiny reveals a

sequence of their evolving complexity of on bindings of the

earlier sixteenth century. In embryonic form, these

interactions can be seen in the single-line border

constructions of the first quarter of the sixteenth century,

and again in those of the late eighteenth century, when border

designs reverted to the earlier single-line formula.

In the earliest types of linkage, repeated, individual half-

knots, consisting of pairs of crossed, gently curving arcs

were common in borders and as decorative enhancements to

linear frames of the early sixteenth century. However, their

function did not appear to develop beyond that of linking

elements between the concentric pairs of linear frames.

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Similar decorative elements were a common feature of Spanish

Mudejar blind-stamped bindings of the fifteenth century.xi

With the comparatively rare exception of straight ‘bar’ links

and vestiges of the fifteenth century Mudejar ‘zigzags’, the

versatile interconnections were all based on the use of

circular elements.

A number of specific types of linkage can be characterised as

follows:

Linked arms (Figure 17)

This was the most common simple linkage from its first

appearance around 1540 to a peak from around 1560 to 1600,

after which it remained in use at a lower level until the

first decade of the eighteenth century. In this linkage a loop

from one ribbon is seen to pass through a similar one from

another. The earliest form looks like the half-knot motif

found on fifteenth-century Mudejar bindings, while later

versions were enhanced as if the two ribbons were connected

via a common roller, resulting in the creation of round frames

or windows as an intrinsic part of the linkage. This linkage

is almost invariably drawn with one single and one double

outline and often attributed to Parisian binders. The only

exceptions are where the outlines are single-line on both

sides: of these, two are attributed to London binders and one

to Rome. In its earliest usage the linkage was placed at the

mid-points between corners and providing clear visual

connection between the two ribbons of a border. This form of

linkage was already well developed in Turkey by the mid-

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thirteenth century, where it was found on buildings and

carpets.

Butt-Joins (Figure. 18)

These linkages have the appearance of two circular arcs having

fused at some point of contact. They are only observed on

bindings between 1700 and around 1740, the later ones often

being non-symmetrical, excessively wide, and rather poorly

constructed.

Figure 17. Linked arm linkage from a Parisian binding of1561 showing the path of the two arms of the linkage and the

small round central frame created.

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Figure 18 . Office de la Semaine Sainte bound in Paris 1715.

The compartment at the centre of this figure is linked to four

others by way of two butt joins, a scissors cross-over and a

rather distorted linked arm linkage. The two butt joins are

not accurately aligned. While the strapwork ribbons appear to

be defined by one single edging line and one double, the type

of outline is not preserved across junctions and to contrive

the impression of panels appearing to be sunk into the cover

board, the binder has had to insert the second outline inside

the compartments. This has resulted in a discontinuity of

outline on the scissors linkage.

Scissor-Links (as visible in the lower part of Figure 18)

The Scissor-link is a curvi-linear form of diagonal cross,

each of the two arms having the shape of a flattened ‘S’. The

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degree of curvature of these links varies from the shape of an

‘X-chair’ to the form of almost two complete circles. The

former were most common around the mid-sixteenth century,

while the latter is associated with the last quarter of that

century.

Barley-Sugar Twist Linkages (Figure 19)

These linkages are the natural result of loosely twisting a

pair of ribbons to create three small compartments. Of these,

the central one is always a round window, while the two end

compartments can vary from semi-circular to completely round.

This style of linkage is particularly noticeable in designs of

the last quarter of the sixteenth century, and again around

the end of the third quarter of the seventeenth. It has a long

history and may be discerned in the decoration of a book

cover, attributed to the thirteenth century,xii discovered at

Kharo Khoto, (Figure 25) in southern Mongolia, and decorative

elements of the form were in use in the architectural ornament

of Islamic Mosques from at least the fourteenth century.

One of the most impressive effects resulting from the simple

use of perspective was the creation of little round frames

within Barley-sugar linkages. The double line around the

inside of these little frames gave them immense impact such

that they stood out from their surroundings.

Round Windows (Figure 20)

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These were a common feature of the earlier versions of Linked

Arm and Barley Sugar Twist linkages from the late sixteenth

century, and were also a particular feature of designs of the

first quarter of the eighteenth. Once it had become

established, the Linked Arm linkage was often drawn much more

tightly, and the round window within it diminished to minimal

dimensions, so that their most flamboyant usage is observed on

bindings of the mid-sixteenth century. On a binding made for

Grolieri the

entire

central

medallion of three round windows was fashioned from a single

endless barley sugar twist knot. A very similar mid-sixteenth-

century binding, produced for Edward VI, is dominated by the

same arrangement of three vertical round windows. In both

examples, the ribbon defining the round windows is single-

edged.

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Figure 19. Barley-Sugar Linkage

Figure 20. Binding of Psalms of David c1603. The figureshows the style and ornamentation of small round window frames

created in strapwork designs of that period

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Wrapped Joints

These linkages are formed when the end of one ribbon appears

to have been curled around another. They was used in the early

strapwork designs, particularly those of the first half of the

sixteenth century.xiii Instead of being composed entirely of

loops, the strapwork constructions contain numerous short

spurs, and where these terminate, their tips appear to have

been scrolled around supporting ribbons. The same kind of

usage is a characteristic feature of Viking Ringerike art, as

evidenced by finds in London, Norway and Sweden.xiv This style

was particularly current in the period from 1016 to 1035 when

Canute ruled Britain, Denmark, Norway and part of Sweden, all

of which produced artefacts in the Viking style.xv

Pincers or Scissors (Figure 21 &22)

These rather loosely defined terms have been used to

facilitate discussion of the constructions where strapwork

ribbons terminate at the outer frame. Typically, the outer

frame became enhanced with indents that gave root to the

supporting elements. In designs of the late sixteenth and

early seventeenth centuries, these commonly consisted of two-

arm linkages between the outer frame and a compartment, which

splay out and terminate with inward- or outward-curling

snails. The visual impression is similar to the appearance of

a pair of shears, pincers or scissors. It is not impossible

that these were the inspiration for this style of linkage,

since tools of precisely that shape had been known for at

least a century before these bindings were decorated. These

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seem to have been mainly of a Parisian style, and are observed

on bindings from the late to mid-sixteenth century, right

through to the mid-eighteenth. In the earlier French forms,

the pincer joins to the rest of the strapwork pattern via a

round window, whereas in later usage the linkage is through a

simpler cross-over, and the pincer or scissors are splayed

open more widely.

Figure 21 Scissors-style indent

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Figure 22 .Contemporary drawing in which a figure isdepicted holding a giant pair of scissors.

Construction of ‘fanfare’ designs

Analysis of strapwork designs established seven distinct

phases in the construction of fanfare designs, each represented

in groups of bindings associated with particular periods:

Design Group 1:217

A central medallion or frame is ‘set off’ by the presence of the outer frame, though

the two are not connected using any of the major linkages.

In the mid-sixteenth century, as strapwork borders encroached

further inwards, a central compartment, usually elliptical in

shape, and intended to be reserved for the owner’s arms or

other personal device, was the major feature of the overall

design. The appearance of this compartment was frequently

substantiated with perspective additions, as may be seen in

the Venetian binding of the end of the first quarter, shown in

Figure 23. This group also includes transitional designs inwhich the central compartment is connected to the surrounding

strapwork through some artistic structure, or else established

as an intimate part of the border to which it now forms the

inner boundary.

Design Group 2:

The central medallion is connected to the outer frame by linkages usually of the

barley sugar twist variety.

Around the middle of the sixteenth century, early designs of

this type are noticeably ‘open’, the linkages larger and more

prominent than on later ones, and their function appears to be

solely to secure the central medallion directly to the outer

frame. The inclusion of single compartments in the vertical

linkages is accepted in this category but not in the

horizontal ones. Later in the century, subsidiary internal

compartments begin to appear, but only partially complete and

bulging inwards from the outer border and not attached in any

218

way to the linkages. The barley sugar twist linkages provide

two or three small internal frames for motif decoration, and

it is common for these to be particularly rounded, even though

the linkage around them may appear rather contrived.

Design Group 3:

The linkages contain a series of small decorated compartments.

In designs of this type, all four linkages are enhanced by the

addition of small, ornamental compartments. Around 1575, the

elements of the linkages are circular, while large, round

compartments, bulging inwards, are freely inserted around the

outside at all the midway positions. The design consists of

the central supporting structures laid against a plain

background which has no decoration other than various floral

sprays.

Design Group 4:

Horizontal bands of closely connected box-like compartments are obvious features

of the design.

Clear box-like structures, of the style shown in Figure 24,are apparent, extending right across the whole board width.

Vertical linkages exist between these three levels of box

structures. The elements of the linkages are still based on

linked arms with round windows. This is a style associated

with the late sixteenth and earlier seventeenth centuries.

219

Design Group 5:

The entire design field consists of an array of small compartments that are

essentially ‘geometric’ in shape, displayed against a back-cloth.

In this group of designs the prominent feature is the array of

small, decorated compartments arranged similarly to the

example shown in Figure 25. It is a characteristic feature ofthese designs that, whereas each individual compartment may be

highly decorated internally, the space between them is treated

as merely a back-cloth, which is embellished with occasional

motifs. Before about 1630 , the background was decorated with

foliage but, after this, more usually filled with round curls

or sea-shell spirals. Compartments are bounded by, often

dotted, strapwork ribbons, while several may have pawls used

as finials to ornament sharp corners.

Design Group 6:

Here the design field is also divided into a series of small compartments, all of which

are decorated in exactly the same wa,y so that none is particularly pre-eminent and

most of them are of irregular shape. The quality of definition of the strapwork is

characteristically ‘heavy’ and not as precise as in the previous stages.

The particular appearance of this group of designs is usually

of an overall uniformity and somewhat unsatisfactory

definition of the compartment shapes.The diminution of the

defining role of the ribbon, together with the often vaguer

definition of the compartments, is a common feature of this

stage. In some instances the ribbons appear to wander, rather

than conforming to a precisely structured design, and in

220

certain cases in the eighteenth century, the function of the

ribbon itself may be seen to have been replaced by a sequence

of drawer handles, or, in the last quarter, with acanthus

leaves. The uniformity in the use of incidental decoration,

both inside and outside of every compartment in this group of

designs, points to a very significant change from the

essential characteristic of all previous types of strapwork

design.

Design Group 7:

This group is characterised by an array of matching panels in an ‘Infinite Tiling’

pattern.

Various forms of this style of design may be observed on

bindings of the eighteenth century. Some forms, particularly

those of the second quarter, feature repeated compartments

containing large plant forms, framed with heavy strapwork

ribbons, with mitred corners and deeply overlapping butt

joins. From mid-century until its end, designs often consist

of an infinite array of identical compartments, all of regular

geometric shape. If these compartments are small, the overall

appearance is akin to a semy patternxvi while those with larger

ones like that shown in Figure 26 exhibit considerable

similarities in style to the designs of contemporary Turkish

carpets. The distinct impression is that the design on the

book cover is just a small part of an infinitely repeating and

continuous pattern.

221

222

Figure 23. Lucian, Dialogi et alia multa opera, Venice, Aldus 1522

223

Figure 24. Nicolas Jarry, Abrege de l’Instruction du Chrestien Bound in Paris

c1645.

A strapwork design composed of horizontal compartments of the full width of

the cover area. The problem of achieving continuity of the single or double

224

outline for the ribbons when crossing a junction can be discerned on most

of the linkages.

Figure 25. Office de la Semaine Sainte de la maison du roi, Paris, 1727.

225

226

Figure 26 . A design in the Infinite Tiling style.

227

i

End Notes

Marcais G. L’art muselman, Paris 1962 p 226.

ii Huyghe R Larousse Encycopaedia of Medieval Art p276

iii Geometric interlace as carpet patterns

iv Graham-Campbell J, The Viking World, Pub> Frances Lincoln, London 2001 p 142-3

v Bain Celtic Art, the Methods of Construction. The essential findings of Bain’s analysis are included in,

Celtic Mysteries: The Ancient Religion, by John Sharkey, Pub. Thames and Hudson, London and Avon, New

York 1975 p 92. For further studies in the construction of endless knotwork see, Pattern Design by

Archibald H Christie, Pub. Dover New York, 1969.

vi Trivick H The Craft and Design of Monumental Brasses, Pub. John Baker, London, 1969.

vii This binding is plate 1 in Nixon H.M. Elizabethan Gold Tooled Bookbindingsin honour of Scholderer.

viii The picture showing a scrolling cartouche in a centre and corners design with heavily gilded cornerpieces

in the Persian style was given by Nixon in, Elizabethan Gold Tooled Bookbindings in honour of

Scholderer………..plate 1. Nixon discussed bindings in which this style of central element was inserted in

the vestige of the previous centre and corners structure as, ‘the cartouche group.’

ix Though far from being the originator of the style, Vrederman de Vries’ publication of designs in1555

proved highly influential in disseminating awareness of the potential ofthis new representational

technique

and stimulated its widespread application.

x G D Hobson, Les reliures à la fanfare, 1935.

xi Goldschmidt W. Spanish Bookbindings from the XIIth to the XIXth Century, Apollo Dec 1934 vol XX (120)

xii Oldenburg S.F. The discoveries at Kharo Khoto are described and illustrated by M. Aga-Oglu in, Persian

Bookbindings of the Fifteenth Century, University of Michegan pub. AnnArbor 1935 ? p 2-3 and fig. 1.

xiii J L Beijers auction catalogue for their Utrecht sale November 7 & 8, 1967 item number 1599 pxii.

xiv Long curling tendrils are observed in the designs on the stone sarcophagous discovered in St. Paul’s

Churchyard in London, the bronze-gilt weathervanes from Heggen in Norway and Hälsingland, Sweden.

Wilson D M and Klindt-Jensen O Viking Art Pub. George Allen and Unwin, London 2nd edn. 1980 p 141-

45 pls LVIII and LIX.

xv Wilson D M and Klindt-Jensen O, Viking Art, Pub. George Allen and Unwin, London. 2nd. Edn. 1980

p 141.

xvi A particular example of a design of this style that is verging into a semy pattern is included as plate xviii

by G D Hobson in his book, Thirty Bindings.