Kathy Abbott

A Song About Myself.

John Keats, with calligraphy by Andy Moore.

The Old Stile Press, 2014.

328 x 239 x 17mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private Collection.

Bound in full black goatskin with recesses and red feathered onlays. Top edge coloured with acrylic ink. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

Inspiration: The image was taken from one of the spreads in the book and I wantd to get the feel of coloured pencil drawing via the feathered onlays.

A Song About Myself.

Top edge detail and view along front board

The Wind in the Lilacs

Harris Merton Lyon, with decorations by Lawrence A. Pattterson and frontispiece etching by Blanding Sloan.

Johnk & Seeger and S.T. Farquhar, 1929.

162 x 132 x 13mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Available for sale.

A stub binding bound in full grey Nigerian goatskin with tooling in Caplain gold leaf. Top edge gilded in Caplain leaf. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

Inspiration: This sweet, whimsical story shares a tale whispered by the wind to a young girl and her grandfather.

Sidereal

Sara Langworthy.

Sara Langworthy, Iowa, 2019.

311 x 185 x 11mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Boston Athenaeum Special Collections.

A Clip-on-Cover binding in full coloured goatskin vellum with tooling in silver foil. Coloured and white Japanese paper endpapers.

Inspiration: I searched through 50 or more skins of vellum until I discovered this one, which looks just like the night sky. The image is taken from one of the book’s spreads.

Sidereal

Back cover

Sidereal

One of the spreads.

Anatomy of Melancholy Vol. 1

Robert Burton, with illustrations by E. McKnight Kauffer

Nonesuch Press, 1925.

316 x 208 x 42mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full black goatskin with full thickness onlays, edged with acrylic colour. Machine-made paper endpapers and doublures.

Inspiration: I wanted to capture the bleakness of melancholy but also the little rays of light/joy that come within the periods of darkness; like the sun coming from behind the clouds. The circular, cross-hatched shapes are found within the illustrations.

Anatomy of Melancholy Vol. 1

Detail

Anatomy of Melancholy Vol. 2

Robert Burton, with illustrations by E. McKnight Kauffer

Nonesuch Press, 1925.

316 x 208 x 41mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full black goatskin with full thickness, bevelled onlays, edged with acrylic colour. Machine-made paper endpapers and doublures.

Inspiration: I wanted to capture the bleakness of melancholy but also the little rays of light/joy that come within the periods of darkness; like the sun coming from behind the clouds. The cross-hatched leaf shapes are found within the illustrations and reference the healing properties of plants.

Anatomy of Melancholy Vol. 2

Detail.

Impresiones Compartidas 1

Mirta Rosenberg, with illustrations by María Inés Tapia Vera.

Printed by Patricio Gatti, de Coleccíon Libros Una, 2021.

272 x 171 x 13mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

A modified Simplified binding with black goatskin spine and boards of transparent calf parchment over pencil drawings drawn by the binder. Handmade paper endpapers and doublures. Top edge coloured with acrylic inks.

I get the sense/feeling of dream-like recollections from these poems and wanted to create a design for this binding that was slightly ethereal and nostalgic. I particularly responded to these lines in the first poem: Una Carta Convertida en Cosa (translated):

“With enough reason I seem to remember days, where the only shadows projected were those of trees…..”

My drawings are taken from a photograph that I took a few years ago, of the shadows of the tree against the window of my studio.

Impresiones Compartidas 1.

Front view.

The Fragments of Parmenides and an English translation.

Translated by Robert Bringhurst, wood engravings by Richard Wagener.

Printed by Editions Koch, Berkeley, USA, 2003.

426x 270 x 24mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

A full binding in black goatskin with black and 23.5 carat gilded leather inlays and onlays. Gold onlay edge-coloured with acrylic ink. Top edge gilded in Superieur 23.5 carat gold leaf. Paper doublures.

Parmenides is considered to be the founder of metaphysics. The key themes I took from this text were:

• What Is versus What Is Not
• Enlightenment versus Un-enlightenment
• Day versus Night
• Light versus Darkness
• Reality versus our sense of reality
• What is has no beginning and no end

Working with the duality of these key themes, I wanted to create an image that radiated from the front cover; a solid mass, which was alive and glowing, and an opposing negative force on the rear cover that was cold and almost wasn’t there.

Gold for me is full of life: luxurious, vibrant, glowing. The central circle is edged with red to help the gold radiate that little bit more. The circle motif has no beginning and no end.

The Fragments of Parmenides and an English translation.

Front view.

The Fragments of Parmenides and an English translation.

Back view.

The Fragments of Parmenides and an English translation.

Detail.

Hamlet.

William Shakespeare.

Alberto Tallone, Alpignano, Italy, 1978.

97/360

357 x 223 x 41mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

A ‘tongue in slot binding’ in black goatskin with red goatskin feathered onlays. Top edge, endpapers and paper doublures decorated with acrylic inks.

Hamlet is one of my favourite Shakespearean plays. It is painful and difficult; full of melancholy, bloodshed and heartache.

Hamlet.

The top edge (head).

Hamlet.

Doublures and endpapers.

The Lyrical Woodlands.

Margaret Sackville, with drawings by Lonsdale Ragg.

Chiswick Press, London, 1945.

286 x 199 x 9mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Boston Athenaeum Special Collections.

Calf vellum boards tooled in 23.5 carat gold leaf from a tool designed by the binder and chocolate brown goatskin spine. Top edge gilded in 23.5 carat gold leaf. Handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

I wanted to capture the essence of light catching on falling oak leaves.

The Lyrical Woodlands.

Front board.

The Lyrical Woodlands.

Queen Mary’s Oak illustrstion by Lonsdale Ragg.

The Traveller.

Walter de la Mare with drawings by John Piper.

Faber & Faber Ltd. London, 1946.

214 x 162 x 14mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

NFS.

Bound in Native dyed goatskin. Top edge coloured with acrylic ink. Katie McGregor handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

A lone traveller and his horse traverse across the rocky salt plains of Lake Titicaca; with no water, both man and horse perish in the rugged landscape. For this binding, I decided to use a goatskin dyed in Nigeria using natural native dyes. To me, this skin evoked the dry landscape of the text perfectly, needing no other embellishment, it also works beautifully with the John Piper illustrations.

The Traveller, Walter de la Mare.

John Piper’s illustration.

The Traveller, Walter de la Mare.

John Piper’s illustration.

Unpublished early Poems.

Alfred Tennyson (edited by Charles Tennyson, his grandson).

MacMillan & Co., Ltd. London, 1931.

256 x 174 x 22mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Available for sale.

A stub-binding bound in full grey goatskin over sculpted boards, cold gilded with Caplain gold leaf. Top edge gilded with Caplain gold leaf. Hand decorated handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

With so many poems to respond to, I focussed on one: Ode. O Bosky Brook, and particularly part II, which refers to the moon.

“Well have I know thee, whatsoe’er thy phase,

In every time and place,

Pale Priestess of grey Night,

Whether thy flood of mournful rays,…………….”

I loved the line: “Pale Priestess of grey Night” and my design is based on this. I created moonscape-like decoration on the endpapers and doublures and two crescent-shaped moons on the front and back covers which become a full moon when the book is opened.

Unpublished early Poems.

Full moon when the boards are opened.

Unpublished early Poems.

Endpaper and doublure.

La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France.

Blaise Cendrars and Sonia Delaunay-Terk. Recreated by Kitty Maryatt.

Two Hands Press, 2018.

366 x 105 x 28.5mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private Collection.

A three-flap enclosure, held closed with magnets, covered in full alum-tawed goatskin with multi-coloured onlays.

My inspiration for this binding came from the poem: cold, white, snowy Siberian weather, naivety of adolescence and the many references to wheels and circles. I wanted to convey the feeling of the movement of the train, along with the fragmented reminiscences of the poet. The colours of the onlays were taken from the pochoir and the image starts with a red semi-circle and ends with a yellow one; this was taken from this line of the poem: “if I were a painter, I would pour a lot of red and yellow at the end of this journey”.

La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France.

Detail of the multi-coloured onlays.

La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France.

The concertina inside the enclosure.

Epistle to Mr Julian.

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

London, 1677.

305 x 210 x 13mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

A conservation binding in full burgundy goatskin with debossed shapes, painted with acrylic. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

This ‘book’ consists of just two leaves from a Broadside. The Duke of Buckingham unleashes a vitriolic attack on Mr Julian: (Secretary to the Muses) a drunk, with a penchant for red wine and brandy. Julian was a purveyer of Broadsides and was known as a wit with a sharp tongue. This is Buckingham’s rhyming attack on him. The spiky, inky shapes allude to the sharpness of the words: ‘the pen’, which is mightier than the sword.

Eve, Singing.

Poems by Paul Ramsey.

Penny Royal, USA 1976.

117 x 137 x 10mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Airbrushed calf vellum boards and tan goatskin spine with alum-tawed pigskin onlay. Edges coloured with acrylic ink. Handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

I responded to this line of the poetry:

“What stirs us when

A rim of light

Refuses, on the edges’ edge to go”.

Living in Time, Poems.

Kathleen Raine.

Editions Poetry, London 1946.

First Edition.

193.5x138.5x13.5mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Available for sale.

Bound in full grey goatskin with pink and green goatskin onlays. Top edge gilded in Caplain leaf. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

I have responded to the poet’s references of lost love and of nature, throughout this wonderful collection of poems.

Living in Time, Poems.

Title page.

2017

The Return of the Native.

Thomas Hardy.

Heritage Press, USA 1970.

Illustrated with woodcuts by Agnes Miller Parker. 

230x170x41mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full dark yellow goatskin with de-bossed gorse shapes.  All edges airbrushed with acrylic paint. Hand-coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

This novel is centred around the landscape: the gorse-covered heathland, which Hardy describes beautifully throughout the story. My inspiration came from these descriptions, focussing on gorse, heather and late-summer light.

The Return of the Native.

Edge detail and front board.

A Shropshire Lad.

A.E. Housman.

Riccardi Press, London 1914.

443/1000. 

230x165x16mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Boston Athenaeum Special Collections.

Bound in full recessed chocolate goatskin with handmade paper onlays. Top edge gilded in Caplain leaf. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

Housman recounts his walks through the Shropshire landscape and his reminiscences of the Boer war and the blood shed on the battlefields. I created paths in the leather with angled blood red edges, which appear and disappear depending on where you stand in relation to the book.

A Shropshire Lad.

Front board.

Patchwork Quilt.

Decimus Magnus Ausonius (Done into English by Jack Lindsay).

Illustrated by Edward Bawden.

Fanfrolico Press, London 1930.

149/400. 

235x155x17mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Available for sale.

Bound in full black goatskin with blind tooling. Top edge gilded in Caplain leaf. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

The author constantly apologises for the mish-mash of poems in these series of poems: hence the title.  I created a series of criss-crossed lines to symbolise this.

Patchwork Quilt.

Front board.

The House, the Garden, and the Steeple.

Mr Arthur L. Humphreys.

Ist Edition. London 1906. 

169x133x17mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full yellow goatskin with gold tooling. Top edge gilded. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

This book contains old mottoes found on lintels (house), sun dials (garden) and bells (steeple).  I created three shapes to symbolise this: a square for the house, a circle for the garden and a triangle for the steeple.

On a Calm Shore.

Frances Cornford.

Designs by Christopher Cornford.

Cresset Press, 1960. First Edition. 

221x144x18mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full grey goatskin with recessed and embossed onlays and relief printing. All edges coloured and relief printed with acrylic ink. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

On this binding I have responded to the references to the sea in the poetry and to the layered screen-printed illustrations by the author’s son, Christopher Cornford, it was a nice chance to fuse my two interests: bookbinding and relief printing.

On a Calm Shore.

Edge view.

On a Calm Shore.

Detail of front board.

Benito Cereno.

Herman Melville.

Illustrated by E. McKnight Kauffer.

Nonesuch Press, 1926. 656/1650.

311 x 208 x 21mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Available for sale.

Bound in full grey goatskin with recessed hand-coloured paper inlays. Top edge gilded in distressed Caplain leaf. Handmade paper endpapers and doublures decorated with acrylic ink.

The tale in this book is savage in its nature: a ship-wrecked slave ship whose captives conduct a mutiny on board, slaying many with cutlasses. The slashes on the front and back covers were done after the book was finished and were made frenetically with a scalpel to create the appearance of savagery. The leather was chosen for its windswept looking grain.

Benito Cereno.

Edge view.

Benito Cereno.

Endpaper and doublure.

Benito Cereno.

Title page.

The Mercury Fountain.

Gregory Warren Wilson.

Enitharmon Press, 2008. 

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full blue goatskin with Caplain leaf tooling. All edges coloured and sprinkled. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

I responded to the watery themes in many of the poems contained in this work.  I discovered this beautiful skin and all that was left to do was to highlight the watery grain with tooling.

Leçons/Learning.

Phillipe Jaccottet and Mark Trehame

Delos Press, 2001. 38/150. 

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Available for sale.

Bound in full black goatskin with recessed hand-coloured paper inlays. All edges sprinkled with acrylic ink. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

I responded to the author's reminiscences of his life and the warm flashbacks of passion and lifeforce.

Winged Chariot.

Walter de la Mare.

Faber and Faber, 1951. First Edition.

219 x 178 x 16mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Available for sale.

Bound in full burgundy goatskin with tooling in Caplain leaf.
Top edge gilded in Caplain leaf. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

This book contains one long poem about the passing of time, both in the poet's life and within nature.

Poems and Pieces 1911 to 1961.

Francis Meynell.

The Nonesuch Press. London, 1961.

482/750

235 x 150 x 14mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Available for sale.

Bound in full chocolate goatskin with hand-cut multi-coloured goatsin onlays. Japanese handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

The poetry inspired me to make a binding that was joyful and spring-like. The ‘X’ device in the pattern was in response to the little flower motif on the title page.

A Stitch in Time or Pride Prevents a Fall.

James Laver.

Nonesuch Press, 1927, 360/1525.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full lime-green goatskin with pink goatskin onlays (to resemble stitches).  
All edges gilded in white gold leaf. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

The Poems of William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare.

Wood Engravings by Agnes Miller Parker.

Limited Editions Club, 1967. 

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full burgundy goatskin with recessed suede inlay.  
All edges coloured with acrylic ink. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

There are contrasting themes here in this text: brutality and love.  I have expressed the savagery with a slash across the board but have inlaid a delicate pink suede into the slash. If you look carefully, you will see small tooled dotted hearts on the suede to show the softer side of the text.

Antony and Cleopatra.

William Shakespeare.

The Red Letter Shakespeare, The Gresham Publishing Co. Ltd., London,

1904. 164 x 98 x 24mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Bound in crimson goatskin with cold-gilded recess. Top edge gilded in 23 carat gold leaf. Coloured Japanese paper endpapers and doublures.

Opulence, passion and violence; come together for me in the imagery for this binding.

Mayflies of the Driftless Region.

Wood engravings by Gaylord Shanilec with identifications by Clarke Garry.

Midnight Paper Sales, USA, 2005. 357/400.

Bound in collaboration with Tracey Rowledge.

265 x 189 x 16mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

NFS.

A limp conservation binding in hand-decorated handmade paper with hand-titled spine.

The Comedy of Errors.

William Shakespeare.

Illustrated by Isadore Seltzer.

PDR/Royal, Inc. NYC. 1993.  

208 x 206.5 x 24mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Available for sale.

Bound in full black goatskin with grey and orange back-pared onlays. Top edge coloured with acrylic ink. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

Twin masters and twin man-servants are separated and lost at sea. The twin masters arrive separately in the Greek city of Ephesus with each of their respectiive man-servants and therein follows a farce of mistaken identity.  I have represented each master with a grey circle and each man-servant with an orange dot, the grain of the leather represents the sea.

The Comedy of Errors.

Title page.

Down the River.

H.E. Bates.

Wood Engravings by Agnes Miller Parker.

Victor Gollanz, 1937. 

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full navy blue goatskin with recessed white gilded detail. Top edge gilded in white gold. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

As You Like It.

William Shakespeare.

The Roycroft Shop, 1903. 

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full scarlet goatskin with black goatskin onlays.
Top edge gilded in moon gold leaf. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

The hearts on this binding represent the love letters that Orlando leaves for Rosalind hanging from the trees in the forest of Arden.

As You Like It.

Detail.

New York Revisited.

Kenneth Auchincloss.

Wood Engravings by Gaylord Shanilec

The Grolier Club of New York, 2002. 

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full black goatskin with handmade paper onlays. Top edge coloured. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

I wanted to create the notion of speed and energy found in the city of New York.  One line is white and two are sage green, to create a tension between the lines.

Love's Labour's Lost.

William Shakespeare.

Illustrated by Berkeley Sutcliffe.

1959. 

Bound in full pink goatskin with multi-coloured goatskin onlays. Top edge coloured. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

British Library Collection. 

The King of Navarre and each of his three lords: Berowne, Longaville and Dumaine despite swearing a period of abstinence from all things love-related, fall in love respectively with the Princess of France and each of her three ladies-in-waiting: Rosaline, Maria and Katharine.  During the play the four men disguise themselves as Russians to woo the ladies, but the ladies are forewarned and decide to change identities with each other. The lords enter, and woo the wrong women.

The farce felt like a dance to me, so I represented each character with a coloured onlay, mixed up, stepping forward and back.
 

Love's Labour's Lost.

Detail.

The Tempest.

William Shakespeare.

The Red Letter Shakespeare, The Gresham Publishing Co. Ltd., London, 1904.

163 x 97 x 19mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Bound in full green goatskin with white gold-tooled dots.
Top edge gilded in white gold leaf. Coloured Japanese paper endpapers and doublures.

The grain of this leather was very reminiscent of the sea to me. The tiny gold-tooled dots were used to hightlight the grain and to create the impression of sea foam.

Macbeth.

William Shakespeare.

J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, 1900.

132 x 105 x 30mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Bound in full oxblood brown goatskin with full thickness onlay, with goathair tuft. All edges coloured with mottled acrylic ink. Hand decorated handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

I wanted to create a chunky and rugged looking binding to reflect the landscape that this ‘Scottish play’ is set within.

Midsummer Night’s Dream.

William Shakespeare.

J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, 1902.

132 x 105 x 25mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Private collection.

Bound in full duck egg blue goatskin with Japanese tissue onlays. All edges decorated with a bleed of duck egg blue acrylic ink. Japanese handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

The Japanese tissue onlays were placed at the ends of the strong grain in this skin creating the impression of light and lively Will-o’-the-wisps.

Romeo and Juliet.

William Shakespeare.

J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, 1905.

132 x 105 x 33mm.

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Bound in full black goatskin with leather fleshing onlays. All edges gilded with 23.5 carat gold leaf. Machine made paper endpapers and doublures.

I wanted to capture the dark passion of this play. The fleshings evoke flames or even rose petals against a solid black backdrop.

1997

Metamorphoses.

Ovid. Translated by Mary Innes.

The Folio Society, UK 1955.

Illustrated by Richard Shirley Smith. 

260x178x48mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Bound in full chocolate goatskin with crumpled suede onlays.  All edges gilded in copper leaf. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and doublures.

I created metamorphic shapes from pasted and crumpled suede, which creep from around the edges of the front and back covers.  I gilded the edges in copper so that they would turn to verdigris and tarnish, as the book ages.

1997

Daphnis & Chloe: A Most Sweet and Pleasant Pastorall Romance for Young Ladies

Translated Out of the Greek of Longus By Geo: Thornley, Gent.

Golden Cockerel Press, UK 1923. 267/450.

260x200x25mm

Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Bound in full green goatskin with full thickness goatskin onlay.  All edges gilded in white gold. Coloured handmade paper endpapers and goatskin doublures.

This Greek classic, centres on a pastoral romance between a boy (Daphnis) who is found and raised by a goatherd and a girl (Chloe) who is found and raised by a shepherd.  I have subtly tried to evoke the nature of the text by using the natural edge of the goatskin to create the landscape in which the tale is set.

Daphnis and Chloe.

Title page.