A Unique Mid-20thC Oxford University Professors Leather Journal Cover

Origin: English
Period: Mid 20thC
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1940-60
Height: 11”
Width: 7”
Depth: 2” (at spine)

The wonderfully tactile tooled book cover in black Moroccan leather with a large and detailed sprawling tan leather dragon to the front, in high relief and expertly worked, its tail curved to create three circles with the monogram ‘MH’ within one, the reverse with the Oxford University coat of arms in tan, the motto reading "Dominus Illuminatio Mea" or “The Lord is my light”, the interior in scarlet red and the whole surviving from the early to mid-twentieth century.

The cover could be used for diaries, notebooks or sketch books and is in good uncleaned and un-meddled with order. There are a handful of stitches missing as per the photographs. It is of super quality and would have been commissioned especially for this individual.

Oxford is one of the oldest academic institutions in the world and the cornerstone of Oxford University’s visual identity is its logo. The coat of arms logo is used in formal and ceremonial contexts, for example for degrees and official documents, and competitions.  The motto of the University of Oxford is “Dominus illuminatio mea” or “The Lord is my light”. This motto is the incipit (or opening words) of Psalm 27: “The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?”. The motto, which appears in the coat of arms of the university, has been in use since the sixteenth century. People believed then that the world rested on God’s hands – that it was contingent on him. Everything derived from his continuous creative act, every instant. Because things are in constant co-dependency, they radiate and are alight by the God-derived luminescence of their truth. 

Rather Harry Potter-esque this…quite wondrous.