Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson (2 December 1840 – 7 September 1922) was an English artist and bookbinder associated with the Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...

.

He was born in Alnwick

Alnwick

Alnwick is a small market town in north Northumberland, England. The town's population was just over 8000 at the time of the 2001 census and Alnwick's district population was 31,029....

, Northumberland, as Thomas James Sanderson. Sanderson attended many schools including the Royal Grammar School Worcester

Royal Grammar School Worcester

The Royal Grammar School Worcester is an independent coeducational school in Worcester, United Kingdom. Founded before 1291, it is one of the oldest British independent schools....

 before entering Owen's College (Manchester University) and then Trinity College

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, Cambridge to study law. He left without taking a degree, and entered Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...

 as a barrister.

As a friend of William Morris

William Morris

William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...

, Cobden Sanderson was involved with the Arts and Crafts

Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...

 ideology and during a dinner party with the Morrises he was persuaded by Morris's wife Jane Burden

Jane Burden

Jane Morris was an English artists' model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and muse to the artists William Morris, whom she married, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.-Life:...

 to take up book-binding. In 1884 he opened a workshop and in 1900 the Doves Press

Doves Press

Doves Press was a private press based in Hammersmith, London. It was founded by T. J. Cobden Sanderson before 1900 when he asked Sir Emery Walker to join him . Cobden Sanderson commissioned the press's type, which was drawn under Walker's supervision, and set up the Doves Bindery to bind the books...

 was founded by him along with Emery Walker

Emery Walker

Sir Emery Walker was an English engraver and printer.Born in London, Walker took an active role in many organisations that were at the heart of the Arts and Crafts movement, including the Art Workers Guild, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the Arts and Crafts Exhibition...

 in Hammersmith

Hammersmith

Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...

, London. The press produced a number of books, including the famous five volume Doves Bible from 1902-1905.
By 1909 Cobden Sanderson and his partner Emery Walker were at the height of a protracted and bitter dispute involving the rights to the Doves Type in the dissolution of their partnership.

The special font known as the Doves Type was used in printing all of the books produced by the press, and as part of the partnership dissolution agreement , all rights to the type were to pass to Emery Walker upon the death of Cobden Sanderson. Yet, when the press closed in 1916 Cobden Sanderson threw the type along with its punches and matrices into the Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

. In this time, as there was no digitalization, destroying the punches and matricies constituted destroying the font itself. The Doves Typeface is now lost forever.

He married (Julia Sarah) Anne Cobden (1853–1926), a daughter of Richard Cobden

Richard Cobden

Richard Cobden was a British manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with John Bright in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League as well as with the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty...

, and added her surname to his, becoming Thomas Cobden-Sanderson.

External links

• T.J. Cobden Sanderson Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
  University of Texas at Austin
  The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...