Julian Thomas
La Prose du Transsibérien Re-creation
Size of binding
190 x 102 x 28 mm (7.48 x 4 x 1.1 in)
Materials
Natural calfskin, cold-gilded, textured, sandpapered, dyed and painted with acrylics. Black calfskin, blocked, painted and sandpapered. Yellow Canson Ingres, endpapers and doublures. Binder’s name blind-tooled inside spine. Clamshell box covered in black buckram with paper label.
Description of binding
The original sheets were joined, folded, and bound in a case of millboards and a wooden spine. The case is covered in black calfskin, embossed with a specially made block. The leather is coloured in fluorescent blue, acrylic paint and sandpapered to reveal black calf. Vertical strips of gilded, embossed and sandpapered calfskin are inlaid into the board leather. The remaining inlays are of textured calfskin, coloured with acrylics.
The vertical strips refer to converging rail lines, the circle, to the Paris ferris wheel, railcar wheels, and revolution. The background shapes of black on blue suggest imagery from the rail journey. The horizontal element of the design is loosely based on the rail route that appears in the printed map, and also alludes to travelling from west to east.
Artist bio
Julian Thomas was apprenticed at the National Library of Wales in 1969, becoming Head of Conservation in 1981. He is an accredited member of ICON and has taught over 85 interns from conservation courses and major institutions. He was elected a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders in 1996, becoming President in 2007. He is an active member of the Society of Bookbinders and is now self-employed, working from home, undertaking book and paper conservation and fine binding commissions. He was awarded the MBE for Services to Conservation Science and Bookbinding in 2012. Collections: UK, Europe, USA, Russia and Japan.
Price
$7625
Prospective buyers: please contact Kitty Maryatt at twohandspress@gmail.com. Books purchased will be delivered to the purchaser at the end of the touring exhibition.