1930 Beautiful Zaehnsdorf Binding - The Testament of Beauty by Robert Bridges.

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Author: Robert Bridges.
Title: The Testament of Beauty. A Poem in Four Books.
Publisher: Oxford, At the Clarendon Press, 1930.
Language: Text in English.
Size : 9 " X 7 ".
Pages: 173 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good, near fine, burgundy half morocco leather binding with raised bands, elaborate gilt titles and decoration to spine, and marbled paper over boards. Upper edge gilt (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. A very nice deluxe binding by Zaehnsdorf binders! 
Content: Very good, near fine, content (bright, tight, and clean, gift note of a previous owner on the second blank - as shown). 
Illustrations: Complete with the nice frontispiece portrait of Robert Bridges.

The book: Attractive volume. A fine example bound by Zaehnsdorf. Containing the long philosophical poem The Testament of Beauty (1929), for which Robert Bridges was appointed to the Order of Merit.

The author: Robert Seymour Bridges OM (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is the author of many well-known hymns. It was through Bridges’ efforts that Gerard Manley Hopkins achieved posthumous fame.

The binder: The famous bookbinding firm of Zaehnsdorf was founded in London in 1842 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf (1816-1886), an Austro-Hungarian craftsman-binder who learned his trade in Stuttgart and Vienna. While he was very successful, becoming ‘Bookbinder to the King of Hanover’ by 1861, it was under his son Joseph William Zaehnsdorf (1853-1930) that the firm was able to develop further and prosper. Joseph William did much to make known the principles of sound binding practice, and to increase the appreciation and knowledge of fine binding. He was the author of The art of bookbinding (1880) which became a standard textbook for apprentices, and he wrote a series of articles on amateur bookbinding in which he stated that the finishing or decorative side of bookbinding caused the most difficulty for the amateur. The firm was known for its high-quality workmanship and excelled in the retrospective binding popular in the 19th century. The firm’s most skilled craftsmen were reserved for the higher-quality work sometimes working from their own designs, and sometimes from designs produced by professional designers, both constructing their patterns from existing styles. This firm was at its height from the 1890s until the First World War, and it is during this period that Alexander Turnbull had many of his books bound.