The Jamieson Collection

I completed my latest clamshell protective box this morning for this great find from Livraria Artes & Letras. The book is an early collection of newspaper articles by Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago. I absolutely love this handmade (from natural cork!) Portuguese decorative paper, and will make it a recurring feature of my future Saramago projects.

My first leather binding project. This is a 1/3 leather conservation binding. It was made with acid-free materials, including Harmatan Goat Leather and Lokta-Saffron handmade decorative paper. This binding is fully reversible, as no adhesive touched the original pamphlet. The only modifications to the original were the removal of its two rusty center staples and the punching of five tiny center holes for sewing it to the inner leather hinge. The pamphlet could be removed from this binding by simply cutting the French linen thread that is exposed at the center pages.

I just completed my 12th custom clamshell case, this one for a booklet recently arrived from Livraria Artes & Letras of Óbidos, Portugal. (Obrigado!) It's an odd little story by 1998 Nobel Laureate José Saramago. It was issued as a 1973 Christmas gift to friends of the Lisboa publishing company Estúdios Cor where Saramago worked first as an editor and translator, and then as a journalist. Five years later, it was one of six Saramago short stories collected in his book Objecto Quase.

Another custom clamshell box, this one to protect a rare copy of the 1941 first edition of the first novel by the acclaimed West Indian author Edgar Mittelholzer. This title was reissued in 1970 as Number 2 in Heinemann's 'Caribbean Writers Series', and again in 2009 as a part of Peepal Tree Press's 'Caribbean Modern Classics' collection.

My fourth custom clamshell book box, completed yesterday. This one is for the first novel—published in 1968—by Patrick Modiano, recipient of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. The title is a play on words, reflecting both the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear under N**i rule (l’étoile jaune) and Place de l’Étoile, the traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

The book’s epigraph:
“In June 1942, a German approaches a young man and says, ‘Excuse me, monsieur, where is the Place de l’Étoile?’
The young man gestures to the left side of his chest."
[Jewish story]

And then there were three....

My second custom clamshell case. Thanks to Librairie Busser for the pristine copy of Patrick Modiano's latest novel, La Danseuse.

Here's my first clamshell book case, finished yesterday. Now that I've absorbed some "key learnings", I'm ready to make more! I still need to decide how I want to make labels for them.

New to The Jamieson Collection: Vintage Typewriters. This baby is a 1949 Hermes Baby!
Details at https://iartx.com/gallery/1949-hermes-baby-5137503/

"Alors" by Walter Egel Kuhlman
Dated 1999 - 8¾ inches x 11 inches
Pastel over Monotype; Unframed.
Details at: https://iartx.com/gallery/kuhlman-walter-alors/