More decorated books from the Netherlands
left: Jan Toorop (1898); right: no designer credited (1904).
A search this week for work by Dutch designer Chris Lebeau (1878–1945) turned up another collection of fantastic decorated covers and prints from the Netherlands, running from the Art Nouveau period through Art Deco up to the 1940s. I found some Lebeau pieces but the big surprise was also discovering a number of cover designs by the Symbolist artist Jan Toorop (1858–1928). Toorop’s highly-stylised draughtsmanship easily lends itself to graphic design but I’ve never seen cover illustration mentioned in any discussion of his work. The site doesn’t have any text in English but the pictures are well worth a browse.
Update: Well…the pictures were worth a browse but the site is currently offline, all the links now go to a domain holding-page.
left: Albert Angus Turbayne (1913); right: CA Vlaanderen (1919).
The peacock cover is a variation on an earlier design by Albert Angus Turbayne.
left: Chris Lebeau (1924); right: AP Hahn Jr. (1931).
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The book covers archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Netherlands decorated books






4 comments or trackbacks
#1 posted by Lesley
Apr 25th, 2010
I adore the black and red one. So Art Deco. Check out my site – Decolish, I’ve put together a great selection of Art Deco collectors guides!
#2 posted by John
Apr 26th, 2010
Hi Lesley. Yes, I wish there was more work available by AP Hahn Jr., he or she seems rather obscure.
#3 posted by sander
Feb 3rd, 2012
Albert Hahn is actually very well known as a political cartoonist avant la lettre. His bookdesigns are lesser known indeed yes,
http://www.google.nl/search?q=albert+hahn&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:nl:official&client=firefox-a&channel=np&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=nl&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=LPQrT_yuNojU8QPwu8ngDg&biw=1024&bih=639&sei=MfQrT5bXLYLA8QPj_ZiIDw
#4 posted by Sipke van de Peppel
Nov 22nd, 2012
Dear John,
You can stil see my collection of dutch art nouveau en art deco bookbindings on pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/sipkevdp/dutch-art-nouveau-book-design/
http://pinterest.com/sipkevdp/dutch-art-deco-book-design/
Best regards,
Sipke van de Peppel (former owner prachtbanden.nl)