Bookbinding — Detached lower cover of a binding, Egypt, 14th century

Bookbinding — Detached lower cover of a binding, Egypt, 14th century is an object recorded by Victoria and Albert Museum, dated 14th century. The museum's brief description reads: Detached binding, lower cover of a bookbinding, Egypt or Syria, 14th century..

Museum description: The lower cover is decorated with a central medallion filled with knotwork mesh within a twelve-pointed star, the lines of which radiate outwards creating a lattice effect; each section is filled with small roundels with the name Muhammad al-Zain (or al-Sayf); each corner is filled with a quarter of the central medallion with similar knotwork mesh; the panel is edged with an inner plain double frame and an outer one made of looping scrolls with three-bladed leaves.

The fore-edge flap is plain with a later leather consolidation and bears the writing: االجز السادس من الاطراف (the sixth section of the [kitab] al-atraf). The envelope is decorated with a repeating pattern of dots and squares and a central mandorla and with the same border of the cover, now partly covered by a later consolidation. The doublures are decorated with gauffering technique, which consists of a repetitive pattern –… The museum record gives material recorded as leather, pasteboard; measurements Height 265 mm; Width 182 mm; place associated: Egypt, Syria.

These details come from the holding museum's own record; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.