Oak Knoll

Limited to 180 numbered copies of which this is one of the 125 cloth-bound copies. Printed by hand by Paul Wakeman, the son of Geoffrey Wakeman, at the Plough Press. Three separate essays provide a fascinating study of English trade binding from the sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. In "Illustrations of English Trade Bindings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Geoffrey Wakeman describes what an ordinary book of the period looked like. Pollard's essay "Changes in the Style of Bookbinding, 1550-1830" originally appeared in "The Library" in 1956. The third article is again by Wakeman and is entitled "Bookbinding Styles in the Loughborough and Ashby-de-la-Zouch Parish Libraries." This article is based on illustrated slide lectures Wakeman gave while teaching at Loughborough and was meant to demonstrate to students the changes in binding style over the period covered in Pollard's article. These slides are reproduced as plates which are contained in a pocket in the back of the book. With the bookplate of Gavin Bridson. Also present is a prospectus to the book and a letter from Paul Wakeman meant to accompany this complimentary copy.