I was contacted by a private collector about two years ago asking if I’d be willing to rebind their first edition set of the Harry Potter series. At first, I was a bit nervous, as rebinding a first edition is considered taboo in the bookbinding/book collecting world. The thought behind this is many collectors desire to have the first edition as it was originally published and sent out into the world, providing a window through time of the experience one has when first encountering a particular literary work. I provided some options that we could do to honor this practice, such as a clamshell box or even a slip case. But they were not deterred and insisted that I rebind it. They’d seen my work in the past and desired to have their collection rebound by Boston Harbor Bookbindery. I was of course flattered and thankful for their kind words. Thus, I began the long and tedious process of designing the binding we’d go with.