Leather Artists' Book - Shells
Full leather bindings filled with extra smooth vintage artists' paper
These are full blooded Properly Made Books, beautiful and practical, made to be used in the creation of fine art, especially drawing, calligraphy and painting.
Lino printed, hand coloured leather and genuine gold leaf cover this series of bindings. Created using a similar process to printing on paper, printing on leather is a complex and time consuming technique.
Size - 5⅜ x 4⅜ inches, 136 x 110 mm
Inside, the binding is filled with 240 pages of wonderful, Imitation Vellum vintage paper made in the 1950s by TH Saunders.
The surface is extremely smooth making it perfect for calligraphy, drawing in inks and pencil, botanical illustration and other, high detail art.
Some of the sheets within the book show the Saunders watermark - this particular style of watermark tells us that this type of paper is mould-made, a process which attempts to imitate some of the qualities found in handmade paper but with greater consistency sheet to sheet.
HISTORY OF TH SAUNDERS
Thomas Harry Saunders (1813 - 1870) was one of the most imortant papermakers. He started a career in paper-making while in his twenties, becoming partner in a paper mill in 1840.
T. H. Saunders, was especially known for his light and shade watermarks, created for various exhibitions in the 1800s, for bank notes and postage stamps for customers in Europe, the British Empire and South America.
After Saunders' death in 1870, the paper business continued at various mills along the River Darent. At some point, Wookey Hole Mill purchased the rights to produce TH Saunders paper. Those rights came to St Cuthberts Mill in 1959, with TH Saunders rebranded as Saunders Waterford in the 1980s.
Given the importance of Saunders' contribution to British papermaking, there are very few, if any records of the day to day running of his papermaking business - it is suspected that the records and archives were destroyed in the 1980s.
As with all Properly Made Books , this notebook opens totally flat
and even beyond flat (the photo above showing the covers folded effortlessly back a full 360 degrees) ensuring it will withstand years of rigorous real-life, every day use.
ABOUT PROPERLY MADE BOOKS.
Properly Made Books are made over a period of weeks and months.
Imagine how a book was made in the 18th century - this is how our books are crafted. They are bound entirely by hand in Scotland to the absolute highest standard using traditional techniques and only the finest quality materials
All Properly Made Books are LayFlat allowing them to open fully without causing any structual damage and making them completely usable in the field or studio.
Properly Made Books can be found in countless collections around the world including the Met Library in New York City, Harvard and Yale Special Collections, Miami U and many more.
Every Properly Made Book is unique - VPCo never makes the same book twice