The semis, with large corners, is a manner which has lasted a long time, but it is not a great style; it is, however, one which has been largely followed in the case of trade bindings. In this manner a very rich and brilliant effect can be produced with a minimum of real design and of technical skill. The centres of such bindings, if not simply coats-of-arms, are always of oval outline, but at Little Gidding the irregular Jacobean corners and oval centres turned into circular centres and quarter-circle corners. The gold tooled leather bindings made at Little Gidding followed closely in detail those made by Thomas and John Buck, the Cambridge University printers, but in the main the bindings made by Mary Collet and her assistants were original. In the matter of semis also the Little Gidding bindings show a pleasant departure from the quite regular arrangements aimed at by Jacobean binders. [Illustration: FIG. 113.--English inlaid and gold tooled binding made by Mary Collet at Little Gidding.] After 1625 the series and corners tended gradually to fall into abeyance, and although they did not altogether disappear, they were each modified. Corner pieces became smaller in proportion, and the semis more artistically irregular. Towards the end of the reign of Charles I. some unknown binder, probably Samuel Mearne, had the hardihood for the first time to bind royal books without any ornamentation on the boards except a coat-of-arms. The red leather, goat skin, used on these bindings is of extremely fine colour and quality. Simplicity in ornamentation of bookbindings is usually accompanied by fine leather, and at no time has this been more noticeable than in the case of Mearne’s simpler work. [Illustration: FIG. 114.--Book stamp of the English Commonwealth.] The political troubles of the later half of the seventeenth century may of themselves have tended to incline bookbinders to simplify their work, and so also may the Puritan spirit of the time. State bindings of the time are studiously simple, and bear upon them a device with shields, showing the English cross of St. George and the harp of Ireland side by side, impressed upon black leather.