NYPL Bookbindings Puzzle
This puzzle features bookbindings from the Spencer Collection, a division of The New York Public Library. The vast holdings of the collection survey all periods, countries, and cultures, from medieval manuscripts, Japanese scrolls, and Indian miniatures to monuments in Renaissance printing, illustration, and binding to contemporary livres d'artistes. William Augustus Spencer visited the Library's Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street building in 1910, while it was still under construction. He was so impressed that he vowed to bequeath his personal collection of fine illustrated books in fine bindings to the Library. Only two years later, Spencer booked passage on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, and did not survive the terrible wreck. His will included not only the donation to NYPL of his own library, but also a fund for "the finest illustrated books that can be procured, of any country and in any language, and that these books be bound in handsome binding representing the work of the most