Cloth binding for ‘Leaves from a Christmas Bough’
1867
Cloth gilt
7½ x 5 ½ inches
The interior of this Christmas gift book is embellished with chromolithographs and verse by E. and A. L. Bond in festive reds and gold, and the same palette is extended to the cover. It is not impossible that it was created by A. L. Bond, who did the ornamental designs. We can be sure that the binding is a typical piece of yule-tide promotion, using patterns of holly leaves to project the traditional associations of Christmas, and is one of many dozens of similar genre-pieces.
Scan and text by Simon Cooke [Click on image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]