Hollander's

The American Academy of Bookbinding at Hollander’s

June 13, 2010 at 12:36 pm Leave a comment

Since 2005, Hollander’s has been partners with the American Academy of Bookbinding (AAB), a professional bookbinding and conservation school dedicated to teaching fine binding and book restoration skills.

Last week ended three weeks of intensive sessions at Hollander’s School of Book and Paper Arts, where the students learned various book restoration and conservation methods including such “finishing” techniques as gold tooling on leather covers.

The teacher and current director of the American Academy of Bookbinding is Don Etherington, a world-renowned fine binder and book conservation specialist. Don’s career in bookbinding spans over a half century and includes collaborating on the restoration of such documents as the Magna Carta and Declaration of Independence. He is also an award winning design binder and most recently his autobiography, Bookbinding & Conservation: A Sixty-Year Odyssey of Art and Craft, was published. This fascinating book chronicles Don’s formative years growing up in England and includes his contribution to the conservation effort in Florence, Italy after a great flood caused damage to thousands of books.

Before Don took over this year, the director of AAB for the past five years was his wife, Monique Lallier, who is also a world-renowned fine binder. She continues to teach for the American Academy of Bookbinding as well as independently. Together, they are two of the most recognizable and respected names in their field. Both are passionately dedicated to teaching others their combined fine bookbinding and restoration skills of over 100 years.

At one time, and not too long ago, bookbinder’s closely guarded their trade secrets. The popular feeling was that they had spent years learning how to become master bookbinders and didn’t want to allow others to gain this information too easily. In addition, some were fearful that they might be passing knowledge on to a potential competitor.

Combined with a general decline of making and repairing hand bound books, as everthing becomes digitized, there is a real danger of losing how it is done. Through teaching at the American Academy of Bookbinding, and as ambassadors in general, Don and Monique have made it their mission to preserve the traditional approach of this trade so that the next generation will have these skills.

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