Compared, however, to modern French professional bookbinding of the first rank, by Capé, Duru, Lortic, Bauzonnet, and the rest, I find that there is a certain heaviness in English forwarding--English binders have always liked heavy boards; but I think that in the matter of gold tooling our best modern finishers can hold their own safely. Bookbinding has been more fostered and looked after in France than in any other country. As early as 1401 a guild of all persons concerned in book production was founded by charter from Charles VI., and continued, with some changes, until 1791. The chief change in this guild took place in 1686, when the binding and gilding were treated as separate arts, as, indeed, they properly are. From the time of Francis I. until about 1633 we find that nearly all the Kings of France had official binders, and, as might be expected, the best French work is to be among their work, with the exception of that of Le Gascon, who, like our Roger Payne, was never favoured with Court patronage. Heraldry plays a considerable part in English bookbinding, but not so remarkable a one as it does in French bookbinding. From royal books downwards, persons of distinction, ecclesiastics of all ranks, ladies and private persons, all liked to have their books ornamented with their coats-of-arms as a principal ornament. Etienne Roffet was Royal binder to Francis I., but I do not feel sure that any binding of his is known. It may be, however, considered likely that he bound most of the books bearing the King’s crowned initials and his device of a salamander. Several of Jean Grolier’s books were bound by French workmen. These are in the main designed on similar lines to those bound by Italians, but there is a difference in the details of the stamps used. One constant difference may be found in the fact that on the Italian books the small leaves and devices are _solid_, and on the French ones they are _azured_, or scored across with fine lines. Some of the French bound books have colour added on the fillets. Geoffrey Tory lived well into the sixteenth century, and among other artistic productions he designed a special stamp for gilding his bindings with. Tory lost his only little daughter, and afterwards adopted as his device a broken vase, symbolic of his broken life. This vase is sometimes pierced by a “toret,” probably a play upon his own name, as he describes it: “ung vase antique qui est cassé par lequel passe ung toret.” The book stamps do not show the toret, but the vase is there. In the other ornamentation and on these Tory bindings is a strong Italian feeling. It is sure enough that the art of gold tooling reached France by way of Venice, just as it did England. [Illustration: FIG. 121.--French coloured and gold tooled binding, with portrait of Henri II.]