Matthews, Brander. Bookbindings Old and New: Notes of a Book Lover, With an Account of the Grolier Club of New York. With 53 illustrations of bookbindings. Major sections on bookbindings of the past, bookbindings of the present, commercial bookbindings, and books in paper covers. Bound in full grained dark brown morocco by The Garret Bindery (Daniel J. Bunce and John F. Grabau) in 1905, with a beautiful design of an open book surrounded by leaves and vines four of six spine compartments, with title and author to second and third compartment. Gilt ruled covers with blind tooled bands extending onto the covers from spine bands. Marbled endpapers in red and blue with wide, gilt ruled turn-ins and similar design from compartments (book tool with leaves and vines) in each corner. Signed "THE GARRET" on rear lower turn-in.
Owner inscription of "Frances Larkin Esty / 1905", who was the daughter of John Larkin and author of The Garden of the Heart: From the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l Bahá, published by the Roycrofters in 1930. Measures approx. 5.75" x 7.5". Some minor gilt loss to some of the finer tooling at spine.
John Grabau was a protégé of Louis H. Kinder and worked with the Roycrofters from 1902-1905. He left to found the short-lived Derome Bindery in Buffalo, and shortly thereafter, he and D.J. Bunce founded The Garret Bindery, also in Buffalo. Bunce went on to found the Bunce-Kinder Co. bindery with Kinder in 1911.