Three brass decorative tools and three brass rolls with wooden handles,

Three brass decorative tools and three brass rolls with wooden handles,

ca. 1865.

Gift of Anne De LaTour Hopper and Duane Hopper.

After her studies in bookbinding and finishing at the Ecole de l’Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs, Anne De LaTour Hopper (b. 1941) purchased a large collection of several hundred brass binding tools, rolls, pallets, and alphabets from a Parisian bookbinder who was leaving the trade. Some of the rolls from the collection bear the mark of Baerel, one of the major Parisian engravers of binding tools in the 19th century. Several of Hopper’s tools, including these, are now used in bookbinding demonstrations and tooling exercises in RBS courses.

From the collection of Rare Book School