Rose Chronicles

Whenever we introduce a new antique cover design, we touch upon the thread of bookbinding traditions that weaves its way through time and space. Our Rose Chronicles design was inspired by one such decorative book cover representing a key point in the evolution of the European branch of the craft.

The design reproduced on our Rose Chronicles cover hails from the Salel Binder in Paris. The original book was published in the early 16th century, when Paris was a flourishing centre of the publishing trade. The city’s reputation was second only to that of Venice, which was spearheading the Renaissance movement and looked to by the rest of Europe for artistic ideas and influences. It was at this time that the gold tooling technique arrived in France from the Islamic realm, where it had originally developed. Combined with the French king’s generous patronage of the arts, this ushered in an age of superb French bookbinding.

Rose Chronicles features an especially fine example of early 16th-century French gold tooling. Formed in a graceful, flowing ornament of interlaced arabesques and delicate dots, it shows hints of its Eastern influences and of the decorative styles that would soon emerge in the ateliers of other French binders.

To bring out the details of the original pattern on our cover design, we contrasted the gold with a fondant pink background. In the glittering, rose-pink hue of this cover you may well see the intricacies of your own stories or the infinite possibilities of the written word. At minimum, we hope that Rose Chronicles will make you think of Paris, which has for centuries been a centre for art and publishing and a beacon of culture.

This design was originally released as our Turquoise Chronicles series, and we loved it so much that we have brought it back in this pastel pink colour. These designs are part of our Chroniques collection, so named after the original volume, a book entitled Chroniques.