Edwards of Halifax
A distinguished English (Yorkshire) family of
bookbinders and booksellers, of whom William
Halifax (1723-1808) and his son James (1756-1816)
were the most famous. William Halifax was known
for his revival of the FORE-EDGE PAINTING
andETRUSCAN CALF
bindings, the latter, which, if not evolved by
William, were successfully adopted by him. He also
used vellum for covering books, and decorated them
with painting of portraits or scenes. In order to
protect the paintings Halifax developed his own
process of rendering the vellum transparent
(although he was by no means the first to make TRANSPARENT VELLUM or
parchment) by first soaking it in a solution of
pearl ash (potassium carbonate (K 2 CO
3 )) and then subjecting it to high
pressure. The paintings were executed on the
underside of the vellum, which was then lined with
white paper before being placed on the book. The
patent which James Halifax was issued for this
process (1785) refers to both the painting of the
material, as well as the method of making the
vellum transparent: however, it is not entirely
clear whether the patent was granted for rendering
the vellum transparent, for the paintings
themselves, or both. Although it was probably for
the vellum process, other techniques for rendering
vellum (parchment) transparent were known more
than 200 years before his time. His technique was
obviously successful, as the colors remain fresh
to this day. Having the painting on the underside
of the vellum also allows the covers to be cleaned
when soiled.
It is known that these bindings were being
produced at least as early as 1781 even though the
patent was not issued until 1785. There is
considerable evidence to indicate that James
Halifax was a businessman rather than a craftsman,
and, since the books were produced in Halifax at a
time when James was elsewhere, it is presumed that
William invented the process.
All three specialities seem to have been carried
on both in the Edwards' home town of Halifax,
where Thomas (1762-1834), another son, was in
business until 1826, and in London, where James
and John (1785-c 1791) opened a book store in
1784, and Richard (1768-1827) another in 1792.
Regardless of its place of origin, however, any
binding of the period which approximates any of
the three specialities in style, as well as the
vellum bindings with blue lettering pieces and
key-pattern gold tooling in the prevailing
neo-classical style, is apt to be attributed to
Edwards of Halifax. (69 , 113 , 140 , 236 )
![[CoOL]](/icons/sm_cool.gif){kind=icon}