mosaic bindings
Bookbindings decorated by inlaying or onlaying
small pieces of leather of various colors to form
patterns. The technique is particularly associated
with the work of the 19th century French
bookbinders, Antoine Michel Padeloup, Louis
Fran,cois, and Jean Le Monier. This form of
decoration has been used for a considerable length
of time; examples of mosaics of inlaid leather,
while extremely rare, date back to the 16th
century. Painted mosaics consist of geometrical
interlacings filled with a colored and varnished
incrustation, with borders of gold lines. Very
brilliant when first executed, the composition in
time cracks and peels off, thus damaging the line
work of gold encircling it. See PLATE VII . (90 , 150 ,329 , 334 )
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