T.J. Cobden-Sanderson
William Rothenstein
Pencil on paper
Photographically “reproduced by Mr. Emery Walker” (Preface)
See below for text accompanying this portrait.
Bindings by Cobden-Sanderson
Image capture, color correction, and text by George P. Landow
[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Internet Archive and University of Toronto and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. ]
[Rothenstein does does not identify which of the “various hands” wrote the commentary below that accompanies his portrait drawing.]
Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, born at Alnwick in 1840, is almost the last survivor of the group of whom William Morris was the most famous. But, unlike that great man, Mr. Cobden-Sanderson is primarily a man of religion, and if his religion is chiefly a thing of his own invention that is a thing for which the Christian minority no less than the Agnostic majority is partly to be blamed. The religion of the churches is from the point of view of the outsider a dead mediae- valism. The agnosticism of the crowd is an impotent laisser faire. Money and the making of money is the spur to action to-day. Material convenience and enrichment are the modern man's ambitions. Against these things Morris fought, and with him Cobden-Sanderson, and they attempted by personal handiwork to show that useful things could be not only beautiful but the source of beautiful life. By propaganda they sought to create a movement of revolt against the commercial- ism of the modern world and a return to the mediaeval conception of good workmanship and good society.
Mr. Cobden-Sanderson as workman, as printer and bookbinder, has done what few have attempted. He has sought for himself a vision of God and given his vision noble and holy utterance in the printed word. Let us praise "men rich in virtue, studying beautifulness; living in peace in their houses."
References
Rothenstein, William. Twenty-four Portraits with critical appreciations by various hands. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1920. Internet Archive version of a copy at the University of Toronto. Web. 20 November 2012.
“Some Recent Bookbindings by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson and Miss E. M. Maccoll.” The Studio. 10 (February 1897): 40-47. Internet Archive. Web. 20 November 2012.
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Last modified 18 October 2016