In the time of George III. there was some improvement in royal bindings due to the imitators of Roger Payne, another binder, whose influence was strongly felt after his death. Eliot and Chapman, during the eighteenth century, introduced the use of broad borders with small stamps, among which are frequently found crowns and sceptres; and many of these are found on royal bindings. Names of many royal binders, from early times, are preserved in various records, but there is considerable uncertainty about the work of most of them; and, although many lists exist of books bound for certain kings by certain workmen, very few of them have been identified. From the constant appearance of personal badges of different kinds, it may be considered likely that, especially among the earlier sovereigns, considerable personal interest has been taken in the covering of their books. We even find the livery colours of the Tudors--green and white--duly used on some of their bindings; and the prevalence of red and blue, the livery colours of the Hanoverian line, is common enough among the Georgian bindings. LIST OF MOST IMPORTANT WORKS CONSULTED Almack. A Bibliography of the King's Book. London, 1896. Burlington Fine Arts Club. Catalogue of Bookbindings. 1891. Edwards. Lives of the Founders of the British Museum. London, 1870. Fletcher. English Bookbindings in the British Museum. London, 1895. Holmes. Specimens of Bookbinding selected from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. London, 1893. Horne. The Binding of Books. London, 1894. Prideaux. An Historical Sketch of Bookbinding. London, 1893. Tuer. History of the Horn-Book. London, 1896. Willement. Regal Heraldry. London, 1821. And various articles on Bookbinding in _Archæologia_, _Bibliographica_, _The Gentleman's Magazine_, and _The Queen_ newspaper. Transcriber's Notes: Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations. End of Project Gutenberg's Royal English Bookbindings, by Cyril Davenport