Cockerell Letters

Letters from Douglas Cockerell to Sir Herbert Thompson, concerning the bindings of medieval manuscripts.

Douglas Bennett Cockerell (1870-1945) was a British bookbinder who revolutionised modern bookbinding. At fifteen he went to Canada and worked as a farm hand, a wool carder, and a bank clerk. In 1891 he returned to England and was introduced to the book arts by his brother Sydney, a British museum curator, collector, and well-connected figure in the literary world and the private secretary to William Morris. In 1893, Douglas was apprenticed to Thomas J. Cobden-Sanderson at the Doves Bindery. There he learned the importance of combining quality materials with technical skill and creativity. He founded his own bindery in London in 1897 and took up a teaching position at the London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. His works include: 'Bookbinding, and the Care of Books' (1901), 'Some Notes on Bookbinding' (1929) and 'Bookbinding as a School Subject' (1939).

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