Having a Bible re-bound

Has anyone on the board gone through the process of having a Bible re-bound? It's getting harder and harder to find the Bible you want with the binding you prefer, so this is an option I am very interested in pursuing. If anyone has had experience with a particular bookbinder, I would love to hear about it.

My current project is to take a new slimline ESV, available only in 'bonded' leather from Crossway, and have it re-bound in flexible calf- or goatskin with gold ribbons added (thus doing an end-run around Crossway's horrible QC on the ESV Bibles).

Mark

 

An update: Tomorrow I'm going to be meeting with AV Emmott Bookbinders in Houston, who specialize in re-binding Bibles. The process is supposed to take 6-8 weeks. I'll post an update after the meeting....

Mark

 

Strike One

I was very enthusiastic about my trip to AV Emmott & Sons. It turned out the bookbinder's office was not far from me, so I packed up my slimline ESV and headed for a consultation this morning. On the phone yesterday, the receptionist had assured me that re-binding Bibles was one of their specialties. A salesperson would walk me through the process, show me samples of the various options, and help me finalize the project.

I already had a fairly precise idea of what I wanted: my slimline ESV re-bound is flexible goatskin or calfskin with full yapp trim, two gold ribbons inserted and 'Holy Bible' stamped in a serif typeface on the spine.

The 'consultation' turned out to be a huge disappointment. It took quite a while for the receptionist to interest a salesperson in me, and the salesperson then spent most of the time 'in back' seeking leather samples. It turns out that AV Emmott specialize in the sense that they do a lot of the same thing, not in the sense that they offer a variety of options. For cover material, I was shown six scraps of cowhide with various grains in black, brown and red. None of them were very attractive. I asked about goatskin, and although 'morocco' was listed on the sales paperwork, it was not available. I asked if the leather grain from the brown sample was available in black. It wasn't.

None of the samples looked right, but I figured that perhaps they would be more attractive when the work was complete. I asked if I could see a sample of a finished binding. Nope. Against my better judgment, I settled on the least objectionable cowhide sample. The salesperson asked, "What do you want stamped on the cover?" The tone of her voice made it sound like we were about finished.

So I asked about full yapp. I had to explain what that term meant, in spite of the specialization, and then was informed, "We don't do that. We only do the regular cover." At this point, she mentioned the price: $85. I asked what was included, and she seemed confused by the question. "You get the cover, and three lines of stamping." When I didn't seem too impressed, she said I could also have ribbons added.

Would the binding be re-sewn? After all, $85 is a lot to charge for replacing a cowhide cover. I was thinking there must be some premium service performed that she had not mentioned. She said tentatively that they could re-sew the binding.... but that didn't seem to be included.

By this point, I had given up. I thanked her for her time and said goodbye. If I had been looking for a standard binding in average quality cowhide, I think AV Emmott could have done the job. But so could the original Bible publishers! I'm looking for something better than that, so the search goes on.

Mark