Fritz Eberhardt’s Finishing Tools and Technique

It was once again my pleasure to collaborate with Don Rash and his Boss Dog Press by translating essays from the German that highlight the work of one of that tradition's finest binders, a student of Ignatz Wiemeler. From the downloadable prospectus: 

The Boss Dog Press is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of Fritz Eberhardt’s Finishing Tools and Technique, the sixth book from the Press and the third volume in the series Eberhardtiana. The goal of this series is to preserve the writings and art of fine hand bookbinders Fritz Eberhardt (1917-1997) and his wife Trudi (1921 -2004). In addition to being two of the finest binders of the twentieth century, Fritz and Trudi were teachers, mentors and good friends to many practitioners of the book arts, and their work and lives deserve to be remembered and celebrated. It has been the honor of the Press to do this in a small way.

Finishing Tools follows 2004’s Rules for Bookbinders and 2014’s Three Lectures. It catalogs 94 unique finishing tools which Fritz fabricated for tooling in blind and gold on his design bindings. Each tool is represented by a description, measurements, and a scanned image of the tool’s impression. There will also be digital photographs of the tools, of the electric tooling station that Fritz used, and of a paper tooling pattern used on Fritz’s design binding of Gordon Craig’s Paris Diary. The catalog proper is preceded by two essays dealing with Fritz’s work, one by Professor Hans Halbey and one by Fritz himself. The essays were published together in the March 1990 issue of the German bibliophile journal Philobiblon. 

Millimeter binding (Edelpappband) covered in decorated paper
by the binder with tooling based on Eberhardt's unique tools,
leather trim at top and bottom, and title stamped in gold. 

Title page with photo of Eberhardt tooling a binding.

One of Eberhardt's bindings and the beginning of the essay where
he discusses his binding philosophy.

Photos of Eberhardt's tools with description and
printed impression of the design.

From the colophon:

This is the third volume of EBERHARDTIANA. It was compiled, designed and executed by Don Rash, with the ongoing support of Elaine Rash. Types used are digital versions of Herman Zapf's Aldus for the text and Michaelangelo for the titling. The book was composed in Adobe InDes1gn. Boxcar Press supplied the polymer plates for printing. The paper was made at the University of Iowa Center for the Book by Tim Barrett and student co-workers, and as printed damp on the BDP Washington handpress. Inks are Graphic Chemical Albion

Matte Black and Hanco Leaf Brown. The tool impressions in the catalog were done by scanning smoke proofs, converting them to printable images in Adobe Illustrator and printing them with the text. All photographic images are digitally printed onto 48 gram Asuka paper.

The edition consists of 80 copies, with 10 copies (I-X) unbound, and with 50 regular copies (1-50) and 20 hors commerce copies(A-T) bound in full decorated paper over boards with leather strips at head and tail.

To learn more about the Eberhardt's, read their oral history recorded by Valerie Metzler, in which they discuss their life, their training, their time in the United States, and much more. It can be found in Volume 37, Number 2, 2002 of the Guild of Book Workers' Journal. Very much worth reading.

Fritz and Trudi Eberhardt - An Oral History

Don Rash and his Boss Dog Press have been publishing a series of titles in the series of Eberhardtiana, the first was 2003's Rules for Bookbinders, now sold out. The most recent is Three Lectures, a compilation of three lectures given by Fritz Eberhardt.

Cover of GBW Journal showing tooling by Fritz Eberhardt

The Guild of Book Workers has just released what I hope is the first set of many digitized sets of their Journal. The oral history of the Eberhardts conducted by Valerie Metzler, and they discussed their life, their training, their time in the United States, and much more. It can be found in Volume 37, Number 2, 2002 and downloaded. Very much worth reading.

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.

Depicted is his binding on Felix Timmermans, Pieter Bruegel, 1950, featuring his signature hand-cut finishing tools. [From the Guild of Book Workers 100th Anniversary Exhibition Retrospective]

 
Here a link to his obituary from the Abbey Newsletter at CoOL.