Chemise Binding, c. 1450

This project was a commission for a living history group. The text block had been purchased from another merchant but no sewing holes had been pierced. My task was to bind it as befitted a prayerbook of a moderately well-to-do English woman. The construction was straightforward: quires were sewn on alum-tawed thongs, which were laced into quartersawn oak boards. The primary covering is goatskin. The chemise is 100% silk velvet, dyed in a natural indigo bath, that I obtained from Aurora Silks. Corner bosses and the clasp were commissioned from Blackwood Jewellery and based on photographs of surviving examples. The fore-edge decoration used hand-ground pigments bound with glair.