A Chink in the Armour

Some of the world’s finest designer bookbinders were commissioned to produce fifteen individual hand-bound copies. All offer exceptionally beautiful one-off examples of how each artist interpreted the book. Each has been meticulously printed letterpress by hand on traditional cast iron Heidelberg Press on paper handmade at the famous Ruscombe Mill in France. This copy was exhibited in Oxford University’s Bodleian Library.

Chris was inspired to design a binding that would harmonise with the wood engravings. He developed a simple binding in white deerskin with onlays in Morocco and tooling in silver. The deerskin is an unusual leather for binding and has a somewhat unevenly marked surface that suggests a snowscape. The black inlay of a line of mountains and the silver tooled dots as stars enhanced this idea. Chris has added a line of bear footprints in silver and a further onlay in red to suggest the blood of the battle. The bright endpapers add a further touch of colour as a foil for the mainly black-and-white theme of the binding and the book itself.

Some of the world’s finest designer bookbinders were commissioned to produce fifteen individual hand-bound copies. All offer exceptionally beautiful one-off examples of how each artist interpreted the book. Each has been meticulously printed letterpress by hand on traditional cast iron Heidelberg Press on paper handmade at the famous Ruscombe Mill in France. This copy was exhibited in Oxford University’s Bodleian Library.

The contrasting colours of the text, the texture of the paper, and the subject matter influenced Rachel’s choice of materials and design, which reflects a winter landscape with snowy mountains under a starry night sky. The white snow has been turned red by blood from the fighting bears. Bound using double boards covered with sanded high-grained red and palladium tooled black goat leather, it has white velum onlays wrapped around the boards and across the spine.

In addition to signing the book, Philip Pullman has inscribed this copy with a line of text. Each volume is encased in its own slipcase and accompanied by a set of six woodcut images used within the book. Each print is signed by the author and artist and is produced in a format suitable for framing.