The Bone Folder is the fifth, and most ambitious, publication of the Boss Dog Press. A letterpress edition of Ernst Collin’s Der Pressbengel, translated from the original German by Peter D. Verheyen, the text is a dialog between a fictional bookbinder and his equally fictional patron, with the goal of educating bibliophiles about the processes of hand bookbinding. The dialog is carried out over six days, Monday through Saturday, with a different subject each day. Monday covers forwarding; Tuesday is decorated papers, leather and vellum; Wednesday, paper case bindings; Thursday, quarter leather bindings; Friday is full leather binding; Saturday describes gold tooling.The original edition was published in 1922, and has been reprinted in other languages; the first English translation was made available in the 2009 Guild of Book Workers Journal, and also as a downloadable pdf from Peter’s Pressbengel Project blog.
The text is augmented by a bio-bibliographical study of the history of the Collin family, three generations of whom were bookbinders of significance in Germany from the mid-1800’s to World War II. This essay is the culmination of Peter D. Verheyen’s extensive research about Ernst Collin over several years. This work resulted in The Collins, available open access for download or Print On Demand.
Portrait of Hans Schiff.
In addition the text is complemented by the inclusion of seven photographic images, a frontispiece, and an enlarged image of Ernst Collin’s handwritten signature. Sibylle Fraser graciously allowed the Press the use of the images, which had been taken in Germany in the 1930’s. Six of the pictures show some of the stages of a hand bookbinding, from sewing through gold tooling the finished book. An additional image is a portrait of the photographer, Hans Schiff, as a young man. Schiff emigrated to the US before World War II, and spent the rest of his life as a professional photographer in New York, working as John Schiff. All of the images were scanned from the original negatives and printed digitally by Light Work at Syracuse University. The frontispiece is a facsimile of the original 1922 German title page, and was printed on the Washington press.
The title page spread.
The books have been printed by hand in two colors on the Boss Dog Press Washington handpress. The text paper is Hahnemühle Biblio and was printed dry.The book was imposed as two nested folios per signature, and there are 9 signatures per book; the page size is 9″ x 12″. Composition was done using Adobe InDesign in Linotype digital Walbaum. The titling font is the second iteration of the Boss Dog Press FritzGotische designed by Don Rash. Polymer plates were made by Boxcar Press.
The edition size is 110 copies, of which 100 are for sale. All of the copies are distinguished by either Roman numerals, Arabic numerals, or upper case letters, as noted below. Each copy is signed by Peter D. Verheyen and Don Rash.
The opening for Monday’s dialog.
There are three binding states for this title:
Fifty copies are case bound in full pastepaper over boards with two color letterpress printed paper labels on spines and front boards. The endsheets are Hahnemühle Bugra gray, and the endbands are rolled leather around cord. The textblocks are hand sewn on four linen tapes.These copies are numbered in Arabic numerals.
Twenty six copies are quarter bound in-boards using Chieftain goat over pastepaper boards and with hidden leather corners. These copies are hand sewn over five flattened cords. The endbands are hand sewn in two shades of blue thread. The endsheets are Hahnemühle Bugra gray with the addition of leather inner joints. The spines are gold stamped. These copies are lettered A-Z.
Twenty copies were reserved as unbound sheets for binding; these are designated by Roman numerals I-XX.
Each bound copy is housed in a slipcase made covered with its matching pastepaper.
The pastepapers were designed in collaboration between Don Rash and apprentices Helen Kirk and Jonah Jablons. Helen and Jonah executed the pastepapers for the edition as well as assisting with the printing and binding, for which the Press and printer are deeply grateful.
Prices for the books are as follows:
Case bound copies are $450.
Quarter bound copies are $600.
Sheets are $300.
Priority shipping is $15.
Standing order customers receive a 20% discount and free shipping; book dealers receive a 30% discount. Books can be ordered by contacting the Press at bossdogpress@donrashfinebookbinder.com; by phone at 1-570-239-8643 or by mail at Boss Dog Press/50 Burke St./Plains, PA 18705 USA.
As of the middle of April 2018, there are 41 case bound copies, 18 quarter leather copies and 8 sets of sheets available.
