Boss Dog Press Bone Folder in Full Production

The Boss Dog Press Bone Folder is in full production and heading into the home stretch! Don Rash and his assistants have done a beautiful job with the printing and binding. As described in the prospectus, the deluxe edition is bound in quarter leather with hidden corners and pastepapers on the sides. [Edit: More also on the Boss Dog Press site]

Deluxe edition in quarter leather with pastepaper sides

Full production, deluxe in the front, regular in full paper behind

The regular edition is covered in full pastepaper with printed paper labels on spine and front board.

Full production,  regular in full paper in the front, deluxe behind

Below, the title spread from one of the copies I have bound with a facsimile of the original 1922 edition of Der Pressbengel as a frontispiece.

The title spread

I'm going to say that I'm floored by how beautifully these are looking - very much in keeping with an aesthetic Ernst Collin would have approved of, and enjoyed.

Bone Folder Printing DONE

The printing is done, and even the printer can't believe it!

About 2.5 weeks ago I signed LOTS of colophons and mailed them back to the Boss Dog Press while they finished the title pages and frontispieces...

Then today, a box arrived with my copies in sheets to bind for the Guild of Book Workers' Formation exhibition. Great timing as I am off of work until January 3rd, so hoping to get through all the forwarding.

Final pre-sewing trim...


Don Rash and his Boss Dog Press did a really beautiful job printing this. Orders for sheets will go out shortly, and then binding starts next month!

The wait has been more than worth it. More details about the edition and ordering information here.

Thank you Don!

The Bone Folder on Jeff Peachey's Blog

Thank you to Jeff Peachey for the opportunity to answer some questions regarding my translation of Ernst Collin's Pressbengel as The Bone Folder.

Peter answered three questions about this project:
1. Why did you call this The Bone Folder?
2. What do you see as the role of tools in this work?
3. Why should someone purchase this limited edition when you have already released a version online for free?

Read my full responses on his blog here.

 And, if you're not following his blog, consider doing so for interesting posts about the history and craft of bookbinding, tools, and more...

 

The Bone Folder: Prospectus Available

PROSPECTUS FOR
THE BOSS DOG PRESS LIMITED EDITION OF

The Bone Folder

A Dialogue Between

an Aesthetically-Inclined Bibliophile

and a Well-Versed-in-all-Aspects-of-the-Craft Bookbinder

By Ernst Collin

Translation from the German and Introduction by

Peter D. Verheyen

Illustrated with photographic images by

John (Hans) Schiff

Download the full prospectus in PDF form here,
write to the Boss Dog Press to request a printed copy,
or see the Press' site for more information.

The Boss Dog Press is very pleased to present this prospectus for its most ambitious project to date: a handpress edition of Ernst Collin’s didactic dialogue about bookbinding entitled The Bone Folder. Originally published as Der Pressbengel in Berlin in 1922, it was first translated into English by Peter Verheyen beginning in 2008, and published in the Guild of Book Workers’ Journal in 2009. Peter later made it available online as a PDF through this Pressbengel Project blog.

Prior to its commitment to undertake the Bone Folder project, the Press had been granted access to a series of photographic negatives and contact sheets of the hand bookbinding process which had been taken in Germany in the late 1920’s or 1930’s. The photographer, Hans Schiff, fled Germany and spent the rest of his professional photographic career in New York City working as John Schiff. During discussions between Peter Verheyen and Don Rash about the design of this edition, the fact that the Schiff photographs were roughly contemporary in both time and location to the text led to the realization that they would be the perfect illustrations for the book. The Press is deeply indebted to Sibylle Fraser for allowing the use of these photographs.

These photographic images come from a collection of 34 negatives taken by Hans Schiff sometime after 1920, and document the pulling (taking apart) and rebinding a copy of the Bremer Presse Faust with that date on the spine.

Proof of images for book. More here.

An image was chosen to accompany each of the six days’ dialogues. The photographs do not necessarily relate directly to each daily subject; rather, they illuminate the progressive nature of the hand binding process. The images are presented at their original size of 110mm by 80mm and include the edges of the negatives. In addition to the six primary images there is a portrait of the young Hans Schiff. Unfortunately there do not seem to be any extant pictures of the author, Ernst Collin. The photograph used for this prospectus is an additional image not used in the book. The photographs have been scanned and digitally printed onto Canson Rag Photographique paper by Light Works, a non-profit photography organization based at Syracuse University.

About the Edition
As with the previous Boss Dog Press titles, The Bone Folder will be printed on our Morgans & Wilcox Washington handpress. The edition will consist of 120 copies, with 100 copies available for purchase. The paper for the book will be mouldmade Hahnemühle Biblio, chosen to show the digital Monotype Walbaum type to best advantage. Typesetting has been done here at the Press using Adobe InDesign, and plate processing will be provided by Boxcar Press of Syracuse, New York. The titling font is the second iteration of the Boss Dog Press FritzGotische, a fraktur face created by Don Rash in memory of the late Fritz Eberhardt, calligrapher and bookbinder extraordinaire. The page size is 9” x 12”, and echoes the 3:4 proportions of the seven tipped-in photographs. The frontispiece is a facsimile of the original 1922 Pressbengel title page, printed letterpress. This prospectus is presented in the same format and materials as the edition in order to give interested parties an idea of the look and feel of the finished books.

About the Bindings
Of the 100 copies for sale, 54 will be case bound in full pastepaper over boards and will be distinguished by Arabic numeration (1-54). The case bound copies will be hand sewn over linen tapes with sewn-on endpaper sections for durability and strength. Titling for these books has yet to be decided. There will be 26 copies (A-Z) bound in quarter leather with pastepaper boards, titled in gold on the spines. The leather bound copies will be hand sewn over flat cords, with which the boards will be attached; the sewn-on endpaper sections will have leather inner hinges. All of the 80 bound copies will be housed in pastepaper covered slipcases. The remaining 20 copies will be offered in signatures for bookbinders and will receive Roman numeration (I-XX).

The edition in production. More images here.

Prices and Ordering
Prices for The Bone Folder are as follows:

• Unbound copies: $300
• Paper case copies: $450
• Quarter bound copies: $600

All books will be shipped via Priority Mail for $15. Standing order customers receive the usual 20% discount plus free shipping; dealers receive 30% discount. Orders may be made using the included order form; by emailing bossdogpress@donrashfinebookbinder.com; or by phoning 1-570- 239-8643. The Press accepts checks, credit cards and PayPal to bossdogpress@donrashfinebookbinder.com.

Download the full prospectus in PDF form here,
write to the Boss Dog Press to request a printed copy,
or see the Press' site for more information.


The Boss Dog Press is online here.

Einschlagpapier, wrapping papers of the DDR

Just received my copy of Don Rash​'s latest Boss Dog Press imprint, Einschlagpapier. Beautifully done with wonderful samples of these very ephemeral papers. Design-wise, something for everyone. Would be a great addition to institutional collections with graphic and surface pattern design holdings, never mind personal collections... Below the text of the prospectus.

The Boss Dog Press takes great pleasure in announcing the upcoming publication of

Einschlagpapier: Wrapping Papers
of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik

By James H. Fraser

PDF of the prospectus 

The late Dr. James Fraser (and here) was a personal friend and a valued patron of the Boss Dog Press. Quite a few years ago he felt it appropriate that Loyd Haberly's bookbinding equipment be placed in my care. This act of kindness made the 2012 BDP catalog of Dr. Haberly's tools possible. His longstanding interest in East German wrapping papers (arguably one of the more esoteric fields of graphic arts history) resulted in a collection of 63 different wrapping paper patterns, which he acquired both personally and through the efforts of friends over several decades. These papers are the core of the forthcoming Boss Dog Press title: Einschlagpapier: Wrapping Papers of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik.

The text, written by Dr. Fraser and edited by his wife Sibylle, describes how his interest in these papers developed, and documents his research into their history. The samples consist of 38 pattern swatches in each book, with sizes ranging from 5" x 7" to 5" x 1 9/16" There are six patterns cited in the text; these samples are situated near their respective citations. Another pattern is used as a tailpiece to the text. The other 31 swatches are arranged by decade as per Dr. Fraser's original dating. In order to maximize the sizes of the samples per volume, the edition size had to be limited to 20 copies; of these, three are reserved for the Fraser family and one for the Press.
Although the remaining samples were insufficient in area to be used in all of the copies, most were large enough to provide one 5" x 7" swatch. Twenty of these will be used as frontispieces, each unique to its copy of the edition.

Page size for the edition is 7 1/3" x 11" in landscape format.· The book is imposed in seven quarto signatures with 51 numbered pages plus colophon. The paper for the text and for this prospectus is handmade Old Master Gaspe from La Papeterie Saint-Armand in Montreal, Canada. As with prior Boss Dog titles, the paper will be dampened and printed on our Washington handpress.

The typeface for Einschlagpapier is Linotype digital Kabel, set in Adobe In Design here at the Press. Kabel was designed by Rudolf Koch in 1926; a monoline face with rather eccentric features, it has a marked affinity to the aesthetic of these wrapping papers. Polymer plates for the project are by Boxcar Press in Syracuse, NY.

Bindings will be full Scholco Half-Linen cloth over boards, with paper labels scanned from wrapping bands in the collection. Each book and an accompanying DVD of images of the complete collection of papers will be housed in a matching full cloth clamshell box.

As noted above, the edition size is 20 copies, with 16 for sale. The price per copy is $750, payable by check or credit card. Payment over time can also be arranged. As usual, standing order customers receive 20% discount plus free shipping. Dealer discount is 30%, but given the miniscule size of the edition the Press regretfully has to limit one copy per dealer. The cost of shipping is $15.00.

While normally we send along an order card with each prospectus, due to the unique content and very small size of this edition we are asking interested parties to contact the press via email or phone in order to ensure prompt processing of orders.

Don Rash
The Boss Dog Press
50 Burke Street
Plains, Pennsylvania 18705 USA
Telephone +001 570 239 8643
Email bossdogpress@donrashfinebookbinder.com

Below scans of the cover and selected pages from the introduction, of illustrations, and the colophon.

The book also contains a CD of images of the full sheets. While not at reproduction quality, they give a wonderful overall sense of the surface pattern design of these papers. The CD also provides descriptive data for the swatches included in the book, swatches that were produced from these sheets.

Images from the CD

A wonderful complement to Einschlagpapier is Freude am Einkauf – Papiertüten in der DDR, a book that while in German is richly illustrated with images of the paper bags produced for shoppers in the DDR, bags that shared the joy of shopping. The book can be ordered worldwide from Edition Panorama Berlin. ISBN: 978-3938753545.

Freude am Einkauf – Papiertüten in der DDR

Both books are wonderful to an collection related to decorated papers, surface pattern design, historical studies.

Fritz Eberhardt - Three Lectures

Don Rash and his Boss Dog Press have just published the second title in a series of Eberhardtiana, the first having been 2003's Rules for Bookbinders. Rules is an "unfinished poem written in German and English before Fritz's death. The stanzas were lettered so that each stanza is presented in both languages on a page, separated by a sketch by Fritz." Sold out at the press, a copy is still available at Oak Knoll Books.

Three Lectures is a compilation of three lectures given by Fritz Eberhardt. The first, "On Binding" was delivered at the opening of Hand Bookbinding Today; An International Art, at Temple University in Philadelphia in 1978. The second, "Preserving the Materials of a Heritage" was given at a 1981 seminar. In it, Eberhardt talks about the book conservation challenges he and his wife faced after settling in the Philadelphia area in the mid-1950s. The third is "Bookbinding: The Craft, The Skill, The Trade, and The Art" given 1983 at the "Art and Craft of the Book: A Celebration" seminar held at Dickinson College.

Three Lectures  is printed on Frankfurt Laid paper in Linotype digital Aldus and Don Rash's own "experimental" blackletter font FritzGotische for the title and headings. The frontispiece was printed as a moku hanga woodblock print by Rash after a photograph in John & Mary's Journal by A. Pierce Bounds where the third lecture was originally published. The case binding is covered in a pastepaper with printed paper labels on spine and front board. An example of gediegene and zünftige (solid and befitting the craft/trade) bookbinding in the finest German tradition.

• Eberhardt, Fritz. Three Lectures. Plains, PA: Boss Dog Press, 2014. 
• 8vo. paper-covered boards, labels on spine and front cover, top edge cut, other edges uncut iv, 39+(1) pages 
• Limited to 100 numbered copies, 70 numbered and signed by Don Rash.
• Price: $250.00 
• Copies in sheets for binding may also be available from the press.

Fritz Eberhardt was born in Silesia (originally part of Germany; now part of Poland) in 1917, he suffered from polio at an early age, which resulted in a permanent limp. After an apprenticeship he studied bookbinding formally under Ignatz Wiemeler at the Leipzig Academy for Graphic Arts, and calligraphy under the prodigy Rudo Spemann, and later, in Offenbach, with Hermann Zapf. Following the end of the war, he walked out of the Russian occupied zone and into West Germany. There he met his future wife, Trudi Luffert, who was also a binder. In the early 1950s the Eberhardts came to Philadelphia, where he was employed by the Library Company. Within a few years they were able to move to the farm on Old Sumneytown Pike where they would cement their reputations as two of the finest American hand binders. In addition to his binding work, Eberhardt was internationally recognized for his calligraphy. Until his death in 1998, he was a continuing voice for the artistic and cultural value of bookbinding and book works, from his early dealings with the Philadelphia book world through the debates on standards and the beginnings of institutional book arts instruction, as well as a proponent of a more professional approach for our book arts organizations. Don Rash was among his most accomplished students. [From the Guild of Book Workers 100th Anniversary Exhibition Retrospective] Depicted is his binding on Felix Timmermans, Pieter Bruegel, 1950, featuring his signature hand-cut finishing tools. 

Eberhardt was also the focus of an oral history recorded in 1993 by archivist Valerie Metzger that was published in the Guild of Book Workers' Journal, volume XXXVII, number 2, Fall 2002. This article is a must-read for those interested in the work of Eberhardt and the traditions and circumstances of bookbinding in Germany during the 1930s and 40s, but also for those working in the book arts. The introduction shared via the Guild listserv can be read here. Eberhardt was also the focus of an illustrated article "Binds That Time: Homage to a Master Bookbinder" by Tony Haverstick, published  in the June 1998 (vol 3, nr. 6) issue of the now defunct Biblio magazine. Here a link to his obituary from the Abbey Newsletter at CoOL.

Binding covered in original pastepaper
Click here to see how the pastepaper was made on the Boss Dog Press blog

Moku hanga woodblock print by Don Rash

Photograph in John & Mary's Journal by A. Pierce Bounds

 

Don Rash's Eberhardtiana series pays very fitting homage to his Meister, and mentor, Fritz Eberhardt. These lectures are as relevant today as when they were given over 30 years ago, and touch on all aspects of the life of private practice bookbinders, book artists, and conservators.