The Abbey Bookbindery

28/06/2024

These two 18th Century books have new 1/2 calfskin leather bindings with hand made marble paper boards. Gold lines and titles. Simple but effective!

01/03/2024

These two early 19th century books have been rebound in 1/2 calfskin leather with raised bands and hand made marble paper boards, (a very traditional marble design). Finished with gold lines and titles. Delivered today with many other bound books to my London clients.

12/01/2024

This Shakespeare book arrived at the bindery with both the front and back boards detached (the leather joints had broken completely). It was also a tight back binding (the leather spine stuck to the back of the book). A lot of books have a hollow back, where the spine pushes away from the text block when opened. These tight back bindings are often more difficult to save, however the original leather was strong enough to remove and retain. The book has been re-backed with a new leather spine under the old and the original spine superimposed. As the endpapers were also split at the joints, these have been repaired using a similar marble paper.

25/12/2023

To all friends and followers of The Abbey Bookbindery. Have a wonderful Christmas.

21/12/2023

This recently completed 7 volume set of 18th Century tomes have been rebound in full calfskin leather with raised bands, handmade marbled endpapers, gold lines and titles. The original bindings were completely rotten but the text blocks were immaculate.

13/12/2023

These books are just a couple of examples of bindings for a private customer who has been sending me books all year, one at a time on a regular basis. Don't think I have ever had a customer who always leaves the choice of colour and marble to me. Happy days!

29/09/2023

These two books arrived in a sorry state. The original bindings were practically non-existent. They both needed to be stripped down and re-stitched before being rebound in 1/4 goatskin leather with cloth covered sides. I was able to save the original front cloth covers and superimpose them onto the new bindings. Nice early editions of this set from 1855.

15/09/2023

A lovely tribute from my son Christopher Berry, giving up his career as a criminal lawyer to follow his true vocation as a highly successful copywriter Christopher Berry - Professional Copywriter and published author.

10/09/2023

Celebrating 50 years of binding.
I started binding at the age of 16 back in September 1973. Still loving the job 50 years on.📚📕📗📘📙📒

29/08/2023

Finally completed this mammoth job of 60 full leather bindings.
The books arrived several months ago as machine sewn uncut book blocks.
The first job was to endpaper all the books with marbled endpapers and glue up the spines.
When dry, the books were trimmed on the guillotine, boxed up and delivered to the gilder.
The books arrived back a couple of months later and then the hard work began.
Rounding and backing 60 books is no fun and quite a slog.
But spoke shaving the leather, (all edges and the spines), was the toughest task.
Anyway, all finished and here are a few photos of some of the completed volumes.
The books were all bound in full smooth goatskin leather with raised bands and marbled endpapers. Gilt edges with silk cane head and tail bands plus a marker ribbon.
Gold lines, titles and block design to spine.
Blind lines and gold block design to front board.
To finish a lined cloth covered slipcase to house each 2 volume set.

27/04/2023

A busy week completing these restoration projects.
All 3 books have been re-backed using calfskin leather, saving all the original bindings including spines and endpapers.
The large black bible with the decorative spine was a challenge. It arrived at the bindery with the boards held on with black gaffer tape. This left a very nasty white crunchy residue behind on the leather. Lots of lighter fuel and even sandpaper was needed to remove the worst of it.

20/04/2023

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Freel%2FCofOyX_j7Mp%2F%3Figshid%3DMDJmNzVkMjY%253D%26fbclid%3DIwAR0xSR29OxNLdhmZSbgO2lzQ872RqOpXnBHKJvgIDVdXei6mpW88w_2ust8&h=AT2t5adDdDSs45LEU_T7tp_KLEqVo7RbBoew_Y9obFg3DzXL1LPDOtLwLToXj4iUD9DcTJBZa6xfIPebi9SzEZl9QWxb-cEHclronm6YFsuxKwxxu7BgHelp2JYKGJNfq27cFA
Busy working in the bindery and my daughter Katie Marie has cleverly created this reel for me. 📚📖

9 likes, 1 comments - on Instagram: "My Dad!! It’s his 50th Year of being a bookbinder this year! ..."

09/03/2023

These three books have been recently completed for a private collector. Classic early editions rebound in leather with raised bands, gold tooling and slip cases.

02/03/2023

Recently completed for one of my London customers.
Always a challenge, to re-back an old book that has been re-backed once before.
The original boards are in good condition. The new leather spine, (I say new), but this book was probably re-backed with a new leather spine around 100 years ago, is now weak.
Both joints had split and the boards were hanging off.
The book had to be re-backed again lifting the old leather and giving the book a new leather spine, and superimposing the original spine. Then lots of dye and polish!
A good result, however you can hardly see any of the work that I have done. 😃

10/02/2023

What's the best way to tidy up a few hundred loose magazines?
Bind them into hardback cloth bindings with gold titles.
Ah!! That's better. 🙂

03/02/2023

A book box can be hand made to house just about anything. Always one of my favourite jobs and I have made many over the years to protect precious books. One year, I even made a book box to house a valuable silver s***f box.
This rare 200 year old pamphlet is protected by a two-tray book box bound in 1/2 calfskin leather with hand made marble paper boards and edges.

26/01/2023

I recently completed these hardback cloth bindings. They are unusual with the Chinese gold embossing.
All that is needed to create this is a good black and white image and a block can be made.
Any image can then be embossed on cloth or leather.

11/01/2023

This first edition from 1933 is one of the longest English novels with over a thousand pages and nearly half-a-million words.
The book has been stripped down and re-sewn on recessed h**p cords.
Rebound in full dark green goatskin leather with raised bands and hand made marble paper endpapers. Gold frame to the front board. Gold lines, centre tool, and title and author on dark red leather labels.
Matching cloth covered slip case to finish.