The Mystery of Mary Stuart. [Cosway].

Andrew Lang was a Scottish writer and anthropologist. Lang is best known for writing fairy books and The Arabian Nights Entertainments. One of the most controversial characters of Elizabethan era was Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth's second cousin once removed. Mary was the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's sister, which made Mary a claimant to the English Crown as well. Moreover, her Catholicism made Mary the true and rightful Queen of England in the eyes of many Catholics and The Vatican. Mary's first marriage to the Dauphin of France had made her the queen consort of France, but his early death and their lack of issue had made it untenable for Mary Stuart to remain in France. Upon returning to Scotland, she married her cousin and gave birth to James VI. Mary Stuart, exhorted by her Catholic supporters, had claimed Elizabeth's crown. Eventually she was imprisoned for nearly two decades and subsequently executed for plotting against the Queen, actions that brought about scorn for centuries. Cosway bindings (named for renowned 19th-century English miniaturist Richard Cosway) were popularized, if not invented, in the early 1900s by the renowned London bookselling firm of Henry Sotheran. The earliest Cosway bindings were created by Miss C.B. Currie who faithfully imitated Cosway's detailed watercolor style of portraiture from designs by J.H. Stonehouse, Sotheran’s manager. These delicate miniature paintings, often on ivory, were set into the covers or doublures of richly-tooled bindings and protected by a thin pane of glass.