John Harthan – The History of the Illustrated Book

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This was a perfect companion to Bland’s book, it was Lavishly illustrated (though the majority were black and white reproductions) and focused more on the style of the developments rather than the techniques. It gave more of a background to the use of books, and their social history, and how they fit into the wider European cultural context. It started with a lovely double illustration of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, followed by some Egyptian porn! (Before descending into the religious books produced during the middle ages). It looked at development and movements throughout Europe, comparing different countries in different periods.

The last section on the Book Beautiful I found most enjoyable, perhaps this ties into reading so much William Morris lately. But it did make me laugh when it referred to Chipping Camden, as a “Delightful little limestone costswold town”as it was one of the villages that went to my high school, and “delightful” is not a word I’d use to describe it as we went through it every day! It also helped me discover two new artists, the first was the illustrator for Oscar Wilde’s Sphinx, Charles Ricketts and the next was an absolutely gorgeous illustration by Kay Nielsen which a quick internet search later revealed that Nielsen in fact did MANY gorgeous illustrations and I must find out more about him.

It was a very good book, references wise and fun to just sit and read the whole way thought. We have a reference copy in our reading room but I may break down and buy my own anyway as it seems to only be about £14 on amazon.