[Fine Binding | Hardy, Maillard, Pilon] The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon

Thoms, William J. (editor). The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon: Containing the wonderfull things that he did in his life, also the manner of his death, with the lives and deaths of the two conjurers Bungye and Vandermast ; very pleasant and delightfull to be read. [Edinburgh: Otto Schulze & Co, 1904. One of 500 copies.] One of three volumes in Schulze's Early English Prose Romances series. Illustrated with initials, headpieces, tailpieces by Harold Nelson. Bound in medium brown morocco by Henry Hardy, Leon Maillard, and Gaston Pilon (signed on the front turn-in). Curiously, no bindery is mentioned, but the binding likely dates to their time with the Booklover's Shop bindery. The front and rear covers feature an interlocking blind-tooled diamond and rectangle design, with the title in gilt at the center, gilt ornaments at the four corners of the rectangle, and outlined with two sets of blind-tooled rules. Five bands to spine, with title in the second compartment and a small gilt ornament in the remaining compartments. Gilt ruled turn-ins with pink mottled endpapers. Measures approx. 9" x 11.5". Some light rubbing to edges and spine. Upper spine tip is chipped.

After the dissolution of the Club Bindery, Hardy, Maillard, and 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).