About the Bindings:

When Bill Anthony died in 1989, he left me well prepared to do conservation work, but we had not yet undertaken design bindings, though we had discussed them. So, when asked to take part in this project, I decided that, rather than do one full-leather design binding, I would do three quarter-leather bindings with a cumulative value similar to that of a single design binding.

Bill and I had discussed the problem that he had faced in binding an artist’s book (was it Picasso?). He felt that a binder was obligated to use the artist’s work in some way in the design. I didn’t feel I could find a design from Bill’s work that would “stand for” him. However, I could represent some of Bill’s favorite elements for fine bindings.

Bill loved quarter-leather bindings. He loved paste papers. He loved hidden corners. He loved leather hinges. Now he also—at the end of his career—loved small endbands and their consequent small squares, which I decided not to emulate. Rather, I chose to honor the beautiful, if large, endbands he had made on his earlier bindings.

The three bindings vary most obviously in the spine treatment. The leather is the same, but the titling varies. The paste papers—which I made with the same brush Bill used when he made paste papers—are subtly different. The color is always black, but over three different colors of paper and with different brush strokes. The corners are either vellum or leather, with the paper cut slightly differently in each case. One endband is on a velum core, the other two on glued cord—one with single-color silk (like Bill’s later endbands), the other with two-color silk.

Estimated Value: $350 per binding

About the Artist:

I was trained at the Conservation Department of The University of Iowa Libraries under Bill Anthony and Pam Spitzmuller. Since 1991 I have worked on my own as a conservation binder and fine binder, first in Iowa City and, beginning in 2013, in Portland, Oregon.

To bid on any of the bindings, please email us at lib-prescons@uiowa.edu. Bids will be accepted until the end of the silent auction, 7 pm CST on Thursday November 13th.