The MFLIBRA Antique Books Blog

Sangorski & Sutcliffe is a firm of bookbinders established in London in 1901. It is considered to be one of the most important bookbinding companies of the 20th century, famous for its luxurious jeweled bindings that used real gold and precious stones in their book covers.Sangorski & Sutcliffe was established by Francis Sangorski (1875–1912) and George Sutcliffe (1878–1943). They had met in 1896 at a bookbinding evening classes taught by Douglas Cockerell at the London County Council's Central School of Arts and Crafts.In 1898, Sangorski and Sutcliffe each won one of the ten annual craft scholarship awards, giving them £20...

Morrell Bindery The bookbinding firm Morrell was originally founded by W.T. Morrell in 1861 when he acquired the workshop of Charles Lewis at 17 Frith Street, Soho, London. Morrell’s son W.J. Morrell took over the management in 1887 after his father’s death, and subsequently brought his brother John Morrell into partnership. In 1891 an observer noted that W.J. & J. Morrell, at that time employing 50 people, preferred to bind all their work by hand and the gilding and the marbling of both paper and leathers was also done onsite. A specialty for which they were known were bindings in...

Robert Rivière Robert Rivière was born in 1808 into an artistic family in London, England. While his siblings preferred painting and singing, Robert became apprenticed to booksellers after he graduated from academy in 1824. In 1829 he established himself in Bath as a bookseller with a side business in binding. All of that changed when he moved to London and established his business as a bookbinder. The Rivière Bindery saw great success in London’s West End from 1840 onwards. Collectors sought him out for his high quality and attention to detail, and he was commissioned to bind books for Queen Victoria and the royal family....

Charles Edwin George Bayntun, more commonly known as George Bayntun (4 August 1873 – 4 September 1940) was an English bookseller, bookbinder, and collector.George Bayntun was born Charles Edwin George Bayntun on 4 August 1873 Bath, Somerset, England to Constantia Amelia Bayntun (1836–1921) and an unknown father. He was a grandson of Wilmot Robert Bayntun Power or Bayntun (1801–1889), who was in turn an illegitimate son of Sir Andrew Bayntun-Rolt, 2nd Baronet (cir 1740–1816).Bayntun served a book-binding apprenticeship before starting his own book-binding business in Northumberland Place in 1894.He took on a number of London binders in order to raise...