Project update 20 - Frank Heyner

Last week I received a request for information on Frank Heyner. The request came from Sylvia Holton Peterson who is undertaking a census of the Kelmscott Chaucer, published in 1896. The Library's copy of The works of Geoffrey Chaucer newly imprinted is bound in kangaroo skin and blind tooled with an ornamental design of grapes and leaves which replicates some of the detailed woodcut borders on the internal pages designed by William Morris. The binding was the work of Frank Heyner, who was "superintendent" of the bindery at the Mitchell Library, from around 1915.













Not surprisingly information files on Frank Heyner were scarce but Arthur Easton found a manuscript item ( A7143) which contained some wonderful examples of Frank Heyner's work. According to the accompanying article from the British & Colonial Printer & Stationer, March 30, 1916, nine panels completed by Heyner were included in the official exhibit sent by the NSW Government to the Panama - Pacific Exhibition at San Fransisco in 1915. The display of book bindings won a gold medal. Heyner used local flora to create the distinctive designs. Heyner was born in London in 1885, the son of a well-known London binder, Mr A.O. Heyner, of Islington.


You may find some of Heyner's wonderful bindings in the collection. They can be identified by his initials "F.H" at the bottom of the back inside cover.