American Indian
Medicine

From my personal collection. My wife gave this book to me as a birthday gift and it’s always held a special place in my heart. One day, many years ago, my Uncle sent me some skins from his adventures in Arizona – he is a hunter/trapper and sends me things regularly. This particular gift was a large Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (complete with the rattle attached). I was, of course, blown away by its beauty and his generosity – and I immediately began planning how to incorporate it into a binding.

The book itself was a modern “perfect binding”, so I disassembled the entire block to rebind it with archival materials, giving it structure and functionality. The snake skin was also surprisingly translucent, so to adjust from my typical methods I strengthened the backing of the skin so it wouldn’t wear out with repeated use. Half-bound with a fine Morocco “copperhead brown” goatskin.