The Nova Scotia Book Arts Group had a wonderful opportunity yesterday to view the Douglas Cockerell collection of books that are held at Dalhousie University's Killam Library.
Special Collections librarian, Karen Smith, introduced the collection by telling us about Cockerell's life and how the books came to be housed in this library. The short version of the story is that a friend of Cockerell's, William Morse, who lived in Nova Scotia, purchased these books from Cockerell and then later donated them to Dalhousie University. There is an online exhibit with photographs of each of Cockerell's fine bindings and information about Cockerell's life and work, available here for a closer look:
Dalhousie Libraries Digital Exhibits.
Karen was kind enough to pull all of these books for us to see firsthand. Of course, complementing the fine leather bindings and elaborate gold tooling are several examples of beautiful Cockerell marbled papers.
Morse also purchased Cockerell's collection of historic bindings and these were also donated to Dalhousie University. This includes several historic bindings and are actually some of the oldest items owned by Dalhousie University. There are some wooden board bindings in alum tawed leather, wooden bindings in leather with lots of hardware like clasps and metal bosses, a bible that belonged to King James, other books with fore edge painting and other types of edge decoration, etc. These are books that Cockerell had collected for teaching and studying and also to practice conservation treatments.
Our thanks to Karen Smith and library staff for this rare opportunity to see these books up close.
Submitted by Rhonda Miller
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