16th-century French gold & black-painted binding (Lyon) (T.9.30)

16th-century French gold-painted calf (cf. Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition of Bookbindings, 1891, H.12). The style copies the contemporary entrelac or strapwork bindings made popular by the collector Jean Grolier who was treasurer of France. From a volume containing a French Book of hours (1558), with a manuscript version of a sonnet cycle by William Alabaster. The binding may have been produced in Lyon. The decoration continues onto the edge of the text block.