Back cover of a bookbinding thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Islamic Middle East, Room 42, The Jameel Gallery

Back cover of a bookbinding

Bookbinding
15th century (made)
Place of origin

Lower cover of a bookbinding. brown leather over paper pasteboards; blind and gold tooling.
The inner rectangular panel contains elaborate floral decoration with a scalloped outline in almond shape in the centre. This is repeated in sections in the corners of the panel. Three types of flowers are shown on the sinuous stems which frame the almond shape. The main outer margin consists of a broad border divided into a number of panels with diagonal knotwork patterns. The pasteboards are made up of a large number of sheets of paper with naskh script in a variety of hands.
The front cover is 1070A-1869. A set of detached Koran leaves also in the collection (MSL/1869/7217) were probably part of the book this cover was made for.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleBack cover of a bookbinding
Materials and techniques
Brief description
Detached binding, Back cover, Egypt, 15th century.
Physical description
Lower cover of a bookbinding. brown leather over paper pasteboards; blind and gold tooling.
The inner rectangular panel contains elaborate floral decoration with a scalloped outline in almond shape in the centre. This is repeated in sections in the corners of the panel. Three types of flowers are shown on the sinuous stems which frame the almond shape. The main outer margin consists of a broad border divided into a number of panels with diagonal knotwork patterns. The pasteboards are made up of a large number of sheets of paper with naskh script in a variety of hands.
The front cover is 1070A-1869. A set of detached Koran leaves also in the collection (MSL/1869/7217) were probably part of the book this cover was made for.
Dimensions
  • Height: 96cm
  • Width: 67cm
Gallery label
Jameel Gallery Book Covers Egypt, probably Cairo 1400-1500 These enormous covers probably protected the Qur'an leaves shown below [i.e. MSL/7217/1869]. The border is filled with knotwork. In the main field a floral design runs between the central medallion and the quarter-medallions in the corners. This decoration was produced by applying small tools directly to the leather (tooling in blind) or through gold leaf (tooling in gold). Leather over pasteboard, tooled in blind and in gold Museum no. 1070A, C-1869 (2006)
Object history
Transferred from Art Museum to National Art Library.
Associated objects
Bibliographic reference
Haldane, D., Islamic Bookbindings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1983. pp. 38-39, pl. 18 and 20.
Other number
38041701007536 - NAL barcode
Collection
Library number
1070C-1869

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Record createdAugust 16, 2017
Record URL
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