Commissioned Bindings, 2012–2017
Printing for Kingdom, Empire, and Republic: Treasures from the Archives of the Imprimerie Nationale. Ed. H. G. Fletcher. New York: The Grolier Club & Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 2011.
A binding of black calf with panels in two shades of gold, containing rows of non-western alphabets from the exceptional resources of France’s national typographic establishment. The binding was created in France by Florent Rousseau, a designer-bookbinder who has been practicing for more than three decades.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.1.
The Grolier Club Iter Gallico-Helveticum: A Bibliophilic Tour of Paris & Alsace & Geneva. Ed. George Edwards. New York: The Grolier Club, 2013.
On a binding of dark-brown goatskin, Eleanore Ramsey designed this polychrome interlace pattern in gilt with varicolored overlays. The overall design is inspired by bindings created for Jean Grolier in the 16th century. The binding was executed by Donald Etherington in North Carolina in 2013.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.2.
The Earliest Dutch Imposition Manual: A Facsimile of the Manuscript “Overslag-Boek” by Joannes Josephus Balthazar Vanderstraelen. Ed. Frans A. Janssen. New York: The Grolier Club, 2014.
Each board of this binding is a laminate of two kinds of Belgian binder’s board painted and gilded to represent differing surfaces. It was created in 2014 by Timothy C. Ely, in Washington State.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.3.
Susan Jaffe Tane & Gabriel McKee. Evermore: The Persistence of Poe. New York: The Grolier Club, 2014.
Purple goatskin features black leather onlays of front and rear images of Poe, his face and hands in silver foil. Australian opals are inset into the outer corners of the borders. This binding was created by the Dragonfly Bindery in Rhode Island in 2014.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.4.
Chris Loker, Brian Alderson, Nick Clark, Rachel Eley, Andrea Immel, Justin G. Schiller, Jill Shefrin, & John Windle. One Hundred Books Famous in Children’s Literature. New York: The Grolier Club, 2014.
The scarlet goatskin is ruled in gilt with blue goatskin inlays and a panel on the front cover depicting Alice about to enter Wonderland. This copy contains original material from the true first edition of Alice. It was bound by Claudia Cohen at her Seattle studio in 2014.
From the collection of Ellen A. Michelson.
Cat. no. 9.5.
Robert Dance. Illustrated by Lynd Ward. Norwich, VT: Imperishable Press & New York: The Grolier Club, 2015.
The binding of black goatskin is stamped in gold on the front cover after a self-portrait by Lynd Ward; this portrait is stamped in blind, in mirror image, on the rear cover. The binding was created by George and Patricia Sargent at their Dragonfly Bindery and Studio in 2015.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.6.
Eric J. Holzenberg & Arthur L. Schwarz. The Grolier Club Collects II: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Collections of Grolier Club Members. Ed. George Ong. New York: The Grolier Club, 2015.
This English binding of black goatskin, gilt in the Harleian style, features gilt onlays in colored leathers stamped with the ownership dies of 19th- and 20th-century collectors. It was created in 2015 by the Bayntun–Rivière Bindery, in Bath.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.7.
Scott Clemons & H. George Fletcher. Aldus Manutius: A Legacy More Lasting than Bronze. New York: The Grolier Club, 2015.
The brown calf binding is patterned in gilt interlacing filled with black goatskin onlays, alluding to the work of Jean Picard for Jean Grolier in the 1540s. Trevor Lloyd, ᴍ.ʙ.ᴇ. created it in 2015 at his studio in a Shropshire village that is every American’s mental image of an English country town.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.8.
Adrian Seville. The Royal Game of the Goose: 400 Years of Printed Board Games. New York: The Grolier Club, 2016.
Black goatskin, decorated with a polychrome design patterned on elements of two of the earliest forms of the game, with inlays and onlays representing ivory and the roll of the dice. Bound by the late Derek Hood (d. 2021) in Britain in 2016, the binding design also features gold leaf and palladium.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.9.
Paul van Capelleveen. Artists & Others: The Imaginative French Book in the 21st Century. Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2016.
Cor Aerssens, who retired a year ago as a designer-bookbinder after a half-century of renowned craftsmanship, created this binding in North Holland in 2016. Covered in japan vellum, it opens into his “standing book” design, and the colored elements are papers reflecting the colors of the Dutch and French flags.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.10.
The Grolier Club Iter Hibernicum Redux: A Bibliophilic Tour of the Republic of Ireland & Northern Ireland. Ed. George Edwards. New York: The Grolier Club, 2017.
This binding of burgundy goatskin is exuberantly gilded in a pattern inspired by a famous “featherwork” binding on Leland’s Demosthenes (1756), now at Farmleigh House, Dublin. It was created by Trevor Lloyd, ᴍ.ʙ.ᴇ., in England, in 2017.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.11.
Mark D. Tomasko. Images of Value: The Artwork Behind U S Security Engraving, 1830–1980s. New York: The Grolier Club, 2017.
Inset into the red crushed goatskin binding are six examples of security engravings. The binding was created in 2017 by Donald Etherington in his North Carolina studio.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.12.
Josephine Lea Iselin. Vive les Satiristes!: French Caricature during the Reign of Louis Philippe, 1830–1848. New York: The Grolier Club, 2017.
Green crushed goatskin is patterned in terra-cotta, gilt, and black inserts, with large circular areas, themselves in a crackled design derived from imaginatively patterned plastic wrapping. Monique Lallier, born in France, created this binding at her North Carolina studio in 2017.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.13.
Eric Holzenberg. For Art’s Sake: The Aesthetic Movement in Print & Beyond, 1870–1890. New York: The Grolier Club, 2017.
Brown goatskin, stamped in gilt and blind, is covered in a riotous pattern of multi-colored leather onlays evocative of Aesthetic-era items. It was created at the Dragonfly Bindery in Rhode Island in 2017.
The Grolier Club Bookbindings Collection.
Cat. no. 9.14.