[Fine Binding | The Booklovers Shop Bindery] Culture's Garland

Field, Eugene. Culture's Garland, being Memoranda of the Gradual Rise of Literature, Art, Music and Society in Chicago, and other Western Ganglia. With an Introduction by Julian Hawthorne. Boston: Ticknor and Co., 1887. First edition. A collection of amusing sketches and stories, with Field's own drawings. Number 16 of "Ticknor's Paper Series" for "leisure hour and railroad reading." Small sheet of paper with Eugene Field's signature ("Eugene Field, St. Louis, Missouri") and dated 1891 is loosely inserted. Bookplate of F.A. Kilmer to front pastedown.

Bound in full red crushed morocco by The Booklovers Shop bindery, with a central inlaid bandana in brown to the front cover and an hangman's noose inlaid to the rear cover. Five raised bands with title in gilt to the second compartment. Gilt rolled turn-ins with pink mottled endpapers. Top edge gilt. Worn original paper wraps bound in at the front and rear. Measures approx. 4.75" x 7". A few minor abrasions to covers, a small bit of loss to inlaid leather on a bandana loop on front cover.

After the dissolution of the Club Bindery, Henry Hardy, Leon Maillard, and Gaston Pilon moved to Cleveland in 1909, with the establishment of the short-lived Rowfant Bindery (1909-1913), bank-rolled by Willis Vickery. The binders then were known as The Booklover's Shop bindery (1914-1917), and following a move back to New York, The French Binders (1918-1920s) (Bound to Be the Best: The Club Bindery, Boss).