Rarely do I get a chance to work on a book I’ve done before. Even more so when it’s a book from the same year, same printing, same edition.

When my client contacted me with her book, my heart skipped a beat. The Story of Siegfried is a book I’d rebound for myself many years ago, from an edition I’d picked up at a local estate sale. It was a chance for me to showcase a set of design features that has been employed frequently this year – original artwork inlay, endleaf reconstruction, paper mending/restoration. When I suggested that we replicate the work I’d done for my personal copy, she was happy to move forward with my proposal.

With my copy in-hand throughout the process, I immediately set to work on the restoration and rebinding of this beautiful edition. What brought me a bit more joy was a chance to improve on my original design. While I enjoy the work I’d done for myself, I’ve always had this feeling of “if I had the chance to do this again..” and now I do!

For instance, reprinting the endleaf sheets to keep with the original printing. Additionally, having a different layout for the spine stamping and tooling was a definite improvement.

I am very proud of the result and happy that her book has a new lifespan, one that will last generations.