Erin Fletcher : Fine Binding & Edition Binding
The Private Typecasters: Preserving the Craft of Hot-Metal Type Into the Twenty-first Century - by Richard L. Hopkins (General Editor)
With Woodcuts by Christopher MansonBird & Bull Press, Newtown, PA, 2008
Private Collection, US
French-style fine binding with laced-in boards. Bound in prussian blue buffalo skin with back-pared onlays in handmade papers in tan, mauve-brown and various shades of blue plus flanelle buffalo skin and chocolate brown and beige goatskin. Onlays are embellished with embroidery in cotton floss. Leather wrapped endbands in lapis buffalo skin with bands of baby blue and very dark blue threads. Stonehenge and Tiziano paper paste downs with a blind tooled beige goatskin inlay. Matching leather hinges. Warm grey abaca fly leaves.
Binding is housed in a clamshell box covered in dark grey buffalo skin and Stonehenge paper. Leather spine embroidered in medium gray green cotton floss. Trays covered in Canapetta copper bookcloth and lined in dark brown Silsuede.
31.2cm x 23cm x 3.2cm – Completed 2021
Artist Statement
The job of the typecaster is extensive; their delicate work requires the mind of a designer, an historian, an engineer and a mechanic. All of those profiled in Private Typecasters expressed an affinity for the machines and tools of the trade that allow them to practice within this unique and modest field.
Scattered across the binding are parts from the Universal Type-Maker (Nuernberger-Rettig). The red threads that run through the machine parts represent the molten metal, which lead to the creation of the title on the front cover.