Colchester: University of Essex Library, Harsnett H.b.23

Leather on boards, rebacked, sewn on four thongs. The same pattern on both boards: a rectangle formed by a repeated thin stamp of vegetation (Gibson, stamp 88), within which diagonal double fillets form a diaper pattern, in which sit two repeated ornaments: one a rectangle placed as a diamond, apparently an enthroned and nimbed Christ Child the crucifix resting on his left shoulder (Gibson, stamp 89); the other a triangle of flowing leaves (Gibson, stamp 90). Ker, Pastedowns, no. 29 and 30, identified these stamps; thus this binding is localisable to Oxford. Moreover, thanks to the work of Graham Pollard, 'The Names of Some English Fifteenth-Century Binders', The Library, 5th ser., xxv (1970), pp. 193-218 at p. 211, the binder can be identified as George Chastelaine, who died in 1513 (Pearson, Oxford, p. 129). Evidence of two fore-edge clasps; one catch-plate in situ on lower board, the same design as on H.b.22.