[Illustration: FIG. 120.--English gold tooled binding, by Roger Payne.] The main charm of Payne’s work consists in the spare ornamentation of beautiful leather with exquisitely designed and cut stamps. These stamps are said to have been cut by himself in iron, but most of them were certainly of brass. One of Payne’s stamps only is specially cut so as to be capable of being used in combination; it is a little sprig of vine, and he used it not only by itself, but sometimes so as to make an entire vine oval on the side of a book. Payne was also the first great English binder to pay much attention to the inside of the boards of his bindings. His “Doublures,” as they are called, often show more elaborate work than exists outside the books. The masses of small stamps which occur on the borders of the fine doublures and in the corners of Payne’s bindings are arranged in parallel lines, but have little constructive arrangement. The brilliancy of Payne’s gold tooling has never been exceeded. In his simpler bindings Payne used a deep soft purple end paper, usually lined with gold round the edge. The leather joint red or green is also often gilded, and shows a stitch or two of the silk thread which Payne always used. The headbands are small and rounded, of green silk, with sometimes a gold thread here and there. The colours of Payne’s moroccos are deep blue, deep red, orange, deep olive, or pale sea-green. If other colours are found on bindings apparently by him, I should begin by suspecting the work is that of Richard Wier. His Russia leathers are always dull brown in colour, and diced. Payne lined his backs too thickly, and his books often open stiffly. This is not of much importance when the binding is morocco, but when Russia leather is used it causes it to break at the joints. Some of the designs in the back panels of Payne’s more decorative bindings are quite admirable. His moroccos are smooth or straight-grained, a method of treating the leather that he invented. Payne often added a manuscript note to his bound work and pasted it in the beginning. Several of these notes are of great interest, as they show the immense care and trouble he took to do the best he could in every case. They are also of the greatest value in showing that certain pieces of work are unquestionably from his own hand. Richard Wier, a Scottish bookbinder, worked with Payne, and closely copied his style. Wier was fonder of blind tooling than Payne was, and they used the same stamps. Many of the bindings credited to Roger Payne are really by Wier, who, as well as Mrs. Wier, was a highly skilled mender of books.