An English bookbinder, who in his career bound a great number of volumes. Many of these beautiful bindings can be found in some of the most prestigious libraries in England and America.
He was born in London in the town of Paddington. He was born in 1799 and lived to be 84.
He was well known for: Bookbinding
Bedford respected margins, and was a skilful mender of damaged leaves. Many of his productions were imitations of the major French bookbinders of past centuries, for example the bindings of Samuel Rogerss Poems and Italy, of which he bound several copies in Morocco inlaid with coloured leathers and covered with gold tooling in the style of Antoine Michel Padeloup.
Bedford himself considered that an edition of Dante, which he bound in brown Morocco and tooled with a Grolier pattern, was his chef doeuvre, and wished it placed in his coffin but his request was not complied with, and it was sold. He obtained prize medals at several English and French exhibitions. His books were disposed of by Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, in March 1884.