Cedric Chivers

Cedric Chivers of Bath's vellucent binding of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

• Charles Dickens (English).
• A Christmas Carol... Being a Ghost Story for Christmas.
• London: J.M. Dent, 1907.
• Octavo.
• 8 color plates and illustrations by C.E. Brock.
• full vellum by Cedric Chivers of Bath (gilt stamped on lower dentelle), the upper cover with a hand-painted scene of Scrooge walking in a snowy street within a wide decorative panel with small mother-of-pearl circular inlay, gilt borders and dots, the spine decorated in similar style with small circular mother-of-pearl inlay, top edge gilt.

Following a lecture by Cyril Davenport of the British Museum on the 18th-century painted vellum bindings of Edwards of Halifax, Chivers created his own ‘Vellucent’ bindings using established artists such as Jessie M. King, Alice Shepherd, and H. Granville Fell. In its prime the company experimented and specialized in highly skilled and beautiful bindings; this example being one of them.

Chivers was born in Bath to a bookbinding family. After working for his father and various other binders he opened his own business in 1878, in the premises formerly occupied by Robert Rivière in Union Street, Bath. He subsequently moved to a double fronted shop at 39 Gay Street and then, as the business expanded, to a large house at Portway in Combe Park where the company operated until 1990.