Rare Books

Compiled by Michael Taylor, 2015

The nineteenth century gave us the wonders of the Industrial Revolution, but also ugly urban landscapes and soulless mechanization. By the end of the century, designers such as William Morris, Eugene Grasset, and Alphonse Mucha were going “back to nature” and creating elegant handcrafted books, artwork, and other decorative objects that wove science with whimsy and brought the beauty of natural forms back into people’s homes.

The LSU Libraries’ rare book collections, especially the Laughlin Collection, have a good sampling of book design from this period, providing material for research, instruction, and creative projects.

For notable examples of book design from the Arts and Crafts movement, see:

• The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1896). The most famous work designed and printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press.
• The Art of William Morris: A Record (1897). Includes examples of Morris’s wallpaper and textile designs.
• The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1895). Kelmscott Press edition.
• The Roots of the Mountains. Kelmscott Press edition. Floral cloth binding.
• The Defence of Guenevere (1892). Kelmscott Press edition. Floral cloth binding.
• The Wood Beyond the World (1894), Kelmscott Press. Rare Book Collection PR5079 .W66 1894
• Other titles in the Kelmscott Press Collection.
• The Poems of William Shakespeare (1899), Essex House Press edition.

Major works on Art Nouveau design that are works of art in their own right include:

• Eugène Grasset, La plante et ses applications ornementales (1897-99).
• Eugène Grasset, Méthode de composition ornementale (1905).
• M. P. Verneuil, Etude de la plante: son application aux industries d’art (1903?).
• Le Document du décorateur: modèles inédits d'ornementation, fleurs, figures, etc., pouvant être copiés ou interprétés (1903). Portfolio of design plates.
• Jules Auguste Habert-Dys, Fantaisies décoratives (1886-87).

See also:

• Christopher Dresser, Studies in Design (1876).
• John W. Wadsworth, Designing from Plant Forms (1910).
• A. E. V. Lilley and W. Midgley, A Book of Studies in Plant form, with some Suggestions for their Application to Design (1916).
• Claude Bragdon, Projective Ornament (1915).

Outstanding examples of Art Nouveau book design include:

• Emile Gebhart, Les Cloches de Noël et de Pâques (1900). Illustrated by Alphonse Mucha.
• Robert de Flers, Ilsée: Prinzessin von Tripolis (1901). Illustrations by Alphonse Mucha.
• Anatole France, Clio (1900). Illustrations by Alphonse Mucha.
• Homer, Nausikaa (1899). With illustrations by Gaston de Latenay.
• Edmond Haraucourt, L’effort (1894).
• Gyp, Féminies (1896).
• Marcel Schwob, La porte des rêves (1899).

For examples of Art Nouveau book bindings, see...

Unique / Handmade Bindings:

• Catulle Mendès, Hésperus. Original Art Nouveau binding by Salvatore David, 1905.
• Charles Nodier, La Legende de Soeur Beatrix. Original Art Nouveau binding by Georges Canape, 1903.
• Gyp, Féminies: huit chapitres inédits dévoués à la femme, à l'amour, à la beauté (1896). Binding by Petrus Ruban, 1896.
• Anatole France, Clio (1900). Illustrations by Alphonse Mucha. Original binding by unidentified binder, 1900?
• Catulle Mendès, Lila et Colette (1885). Binding by Tout (England) with floral endpapers.
• Poems by John Keats (1890). Original binding by Riviere & Son, after 1890.
• The Poetical Works of John Keats (1862). Original floral Kelliegram binding, ca. 1900.
• See also: Alastair Duncan, Art Nouveau and Art Deco Bookbinding: French Masterpieces, 1880-1940. (LSULibrary)

Trade / Publishers’ Bindings:

• Národní album (1899), Czech Art Nouveau binding.
• Art et décoration. A serial journal.
• Le Musee d’art (1902).
• More Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights (1895).
• Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1899).
• Stories from the Old Testament (1908).
• Aubrey Beardsley, Under the Hill (1904).
• The Savoy (1896). Literary journal with designs by Beardsley.
• Harry Quilter, Preferences in Art, Life, and Literature (1892).
• Jean Floryde, Le Meneur de Loups (1911).
• W. B. Yeats, The Secret Rose (1897).
• Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market (1893).

Other items of interest:

• Le Japon Artistique (1888-91). Journal on Japanese art. Influenced Art Nouveau and Impressionism.
• Ver Sacrum (1898-99). Journal of the Vienna Secession.
• Die Jugend (1896). Munich magazine of the German Art Nouveau movement (Jugendstil).
• Julius Klinger, La ligne grotesque (1907?). A collection of cards with a mirror that can be positioned and moved to create abstract designs.