1933 Gill Hamlet LEC

On a whim I just picked this up for 130 USD incl. shipping across the pond:

Book Description: An unbound copy, and thus a bit of an anomaly. In the edition of 1500 numbered, of which this is number 895; signed by Eric Gill. The sewn sheets only, without the leather binding or slipcase.

How great a fool am I?

>1 GusLogan:

Which binder are you sending it to?

Probably the best one I can find here in Stockholm, just because I can’t really see that it’s a job you can get done well without some personal contact. Having said which, I would be surprised if I don’t face a high cost-to-skill ratio in an international comparison...

>3 GusLogan:

Not cheap by any means but you could always send it to Bayntun-Riviere in the UK. A good bindery or a master binder will know what to do with it even if you don't.

>1 GusLogan: I bought a fairly nice copy (leather in very good condition but a toned/darkened spine) for $200. A full leather binding with lettering on the spine and the front cover design will cost $400 - $800. Maybe as cheap as $300 with a plain front cover (but I doubt it if one includes a custom slipcase). Can you not find a copy in NF condition for $400 - $600? I must be really bad at finding cost effective binders. For me, a new binding only makes sense if I could do it myself (doubtful) or I have a really expensive book to be rebound. As an example when I was looking for a nice copy of the HP Ink and Blood by Arthur Szyk, I couldn't find anything in NF condition for less than $1200 (it's cheaper now). I bought a nice copy with slipcase for $200 but the spine had literally disintegrated. For $500 I was able to have a rebind done (saving the gorgeous endpapers) in full goatskin and hot stamped gold lettering on the spine. Thus, $700 for a Fine edition of a title I really wanted. That price still can't be beat. There are very few titles in my collection where this approach would work.

>1 GusLogan:
I'd have loved to pick up that copy! Instead, I bought a standard-bound one in very good condition, albeit with spine destroyed, that I'm having re-bound by Starr Bookworks. I'll let you know how it goes....

>1 GusLogan: It is interesting to see if this copy was truly left unbound or the binding disappeared at some point. Why would the sheets be sewn but not bound?

>7 BuzzBuzzard:

A mystery indeed! Especially a numbered and signed copy. One of the Monthly Letters mentions that early on, the Club had 50 (?) extra copies of each issue, but these were unnumbered, unsigned and usually given to friends and family. (That letter mentioned that Macy thought about sending "50 unbound copies" of the Life of Benvenuto Cellini to leading binderies with the idea of having a competition--an idea that never came to fruition.)

If I were going to make a guess, I would say that somebody bought a copy with a deteriorated or damaged binding, removed it with the thought of having it rebound, then balked at the price. I have an Limited Editions Club The House of Seven Gables with the boards detached and the spine in poor shape and I took it to a local bookbinder and got a quote of $450 to put on new boards with my supplied mailed paper and repair the spine. That will be a project for whoever gets it after me!

>8 Django6924: I don’t claim to have read all the early MLs but from what I remember there was indeed a plan to produce extra copies of Cellini to be bound by leading binders around the world as a competition. I think Jack discovered that this project was cancelled because Macy found out that this had only recently been done by somebody else. The only other title with extra copies that I know of is The Confessions of an English Opium Eater.

Regarding The House of the Seven Gables you can have a fine copy for the fraction of the cost of rebinding and I think it is worth looking for. After reading the LEC I developed a real appreciation for it. Probably not one of the wow Macy projects but nevertheless a very successful one. If I have to use just one word to describe this edition it will be “harmonious”. Everything feels just right. Comfortable size, nice binding, paper, printing, art. I like every aspect of it. Printed at the Hawthorn House :)

I also think it was bound originally. And from the replies, for which many thanks, I take away that this was probably rather foolish of me, but it’ll be interesting, and money isn’t everything... I’ll let you know how it goes (keen to see what kermaier ends up with) but I may end up with a relatively inexpensive rebinding that will horrify you fine people!

>1 GusLogan: How about a photo? 'Twould make it easier to see if it was indeed previously bound.

Just got my rebound Hamlet back from Starr -- not bad at all, I'd say!

Looks great! How much does Starr charge for this type of project? Debating whether to do a rebind for this book as well.

>12 kermaier:

Extremely well done! Yes, how much do they charge?

Well, I'd let them quote you a price, based on the particular materials and work you want, but you should expect to pay $300+ for a full-leather binding.

>12 kermaier: Nice reuse of the original boards.

>16 kdweber: Thanks! Actually, they're new boards, they just lifted the original leather and inlaid it into the new binding.

Outstanding incorporation of original binding elements into the new "skin". Love it and thank you for sharing.

>12 kermaier: how much input did you have in the rebinding? Did you just hand the book over and ask them to do their thing, or did you spend a lot of time specifying what the rebind should look like?

>19 ubiquitousuk: The latter :-) Lots of back-and-forth via email. Donna was very helpful, recommending that particular red leather, having dissuaded me from purple on account of weak light-fastness of that color family. The rest was to my specification, including matching the color of the new end-papers to the original figures' grey-green line. (Spine titling came out a bit larger than I'd imagined, but still quite nice, IMO.)

>20 kermaier: And green fades to brown and fairly quickly, too. I love a dark blue, but even that fades--to a light blue. Consequently, I tend to go with brown, black, red or a natural skin, undyed.

>20 kermaier:
Kudos for this effort. It is not something I would have essayed myself. But your initiative might inspire others (including me) to attempt this with a favorite LEC.
My fantasy-as long as I'm writing on this, i might as well state it-is that someone il do very careful facsimiles of some of the LEC greats
so they would be available to a wider audience in something like the original form. I'm sure there are a host of obstacles to this being done but who knows?
The Folio Society has done some really impressive facsimiles including some of Eric Gill's work, several of which I have, and I think many booklovers would welcome them.