The Cockerell and Son Bindery is celebrated for their unique style of Paper marbling, developed by Sandy Cockerell.
We hope this wavy pattern and its unique history will inspire you too to think outside the box and push to follow your own creative passions.
MORE FEATURES:100% recycled binder boardsDecorative printed cover paperFSC-certified text paperThreaded stitching....
Rubedo therefore was seen as signalling the successful end of a great work, which we found fitting for writers and artists alike.
We named it Rubedo, for a Latin word meaning “redness” which was adopted by alchemists to define the fourth and final major stage of a magnum opus.
Like katagami stencils, one must essentially destroy the pattern template to complete each print, so when the same pattern is carried out multiple times, it will slightly alter and evolve with each printing.
When looking to relaunch our Cockerell Marbled Paper series, we were especially drawn to this striking red, black and white pattern.
For his efforts, Sandy Cockerell was awarded an OBE and received an honourary doctorate from Cambridge, and there was even a 1970s documentary film about his work titled The Art of the Marbler.
Beyond the aesthetic beauty, what makes Cockerell Marbled Paper so special is that each and every piece is a unique original.
He improved the design of existing equipment and created his own gadgets and tools when that which he needed did not exist.
In this way he moved away from the Arts and Crafts mentality that his father and William Morris possessed and embraced the challenges and opportunities that mass production and technology can bring.
Described by many as a “latter-day Leonardo,” Sandy Cockerell took this painstaking handicraft tradition and found a way to produce the decorative papers at high speeds and volumes.
Significantly, one student of the book was Sybil Pye, the great Art Deco bookbinder behind our Sybil Pye Bindings series.
Today, Cockerell and Son is best remembered for Sandy Cockerell’s Marbled papers.
Douglas quickly rose to the top of the profession, writing Bookbinding and the Care of Books in 1901, a manual still in print and referenced today.
Sandy was the son of Douglas Bennett Cockerell, who began the London-based business after being introduced to the book arts by William Morris of Kelmscott Press.
Now, over 30 years after that first release, we are honoured to bring a Cockerell design back to our collection.
This technique was developed by the late Sydney (Sandy) Morris Cockerell, who found inspiration in a Paper dyeing tradition that can be traced to Turkey and the Far East.
When we first launched the Paperblanks brand back in 1992, it was their iconic decorative papers that we turned to as one of our foundational journal covers.
We have reproduced one of these iconic Marbled papers here.
For nearly a century, the Cockerell family name represented a tradition of high-quality bookbinding and unique Marbled Paper design.
He took the tradition of handmade Marbled papers and found a way to produce the strikingly complex designs at high speeds and volumes.
The Cockerell and Son Bindery is celebrated for their unique style of Paper marbling, developed by Sandy Cockerell
