T.J. Cobden-Sanderson, an influential bookbinder and barrister by trade, recognized the budding potential of women as binders and designers in the bookbinding industry, and perpetuated the training and education of women and the facilitation of their entry into the field. Though Cobden-Sanderson bound independently for over ten years, around 1893 he founded the Doves Bindery, recruiting over a dozen women from reaches as far as America to learn the crafts of the bookbinding process. Cobden-Sanderson hired Bessie Hooley as a sewer, and she served as an instructor and exemplar along with her cohorts to the women pupils Cobden-Sanderson ushered through the bindery. Other staff included Charles McLeish from Riviere and Charles Wilkinson from Zaehnsdorf, who both served as finishers. Douglas Cockerell, whom later became quite accomplished in bookbinding and a well-known name in the field, served as an apprentice. The talent and beautiful productions of the women of the Doves Bindery rendered the bindery one of the most expensive shops in London (Tidcombe, 1996).