Guest Blogger - Dominic Riley: A New Design Binding for an Old Book

San Francisco Old and New
Grabhorn Press, 1939
Design binding by Dominic Riley

This is a marvelous book, printed by the famous San Francisco Grabhorn Press, and I assume it was brought out partly to celebrate the building of the Bay Bridge, as the first illustration in the book is of the new bridge.

The book was given to me a few years ago by my friend and colleague Margaret Johnson, a stalwart of the bookbinding community here in San Francisco, with a view to creating a special binding for it.

The project was a joint venture. Margaret gave me a budget, and asked me to produce a binding for twice that amount. The reason was clear, and fitting: knowing that the San Francisco Public Library had for some time now wanted to have a binding of mine, but since they have a limited budget, she suggested that the finished binding would be a gift to SFPL from both of us.

It has been a joy to work on: this lovely book from this City’s iconic press, and it is a tribute from me to an institution which has for over twenty years provided me with endless help, as a research library offering much guidance and advice, support for my teaching here, and as a bastion of fine binding on the West Coast.

My design came from a simple sketch I made of some of the buildings referred to in the book: the Palace of Fine Arts, the ‘Painted Ladies’, the Coit Tower, City Hall and the Ferry Building. And towering above them all, the new Bridge.

The binding is a gift to the city from myself and Margaret, two transplants who have over the years made this fabulous city home.

                 

Our guest blogger is design binder Dominic Riley. Dominic studied with bookbinder Paul Delrue and at the London College of Printing. He was a long-time resident of California before his return to Great Britain, where he teaches and designs book bindings. He is the recipient of the Mansfield Medal in Design Binding (2007) and was awarded  the Sir Paul Getty Bodleian Bookbinding Prize (2013). He was elected a Fellow of the Design Binders and is past-president of the Hand Bookbinders of California. Dominic starred with the wonderful local box maker John Demerritt in the library program "The Book Boys," which may be viewed on the Library's YouTube channel here and here.

Dominic's design binding is on view with bookbindings from the Book Arts & Special Collections Center, a companion exhibit to the Hand Bookbinders of California Members Exhibition, through September 3. In the Skylight Gallery, 6th floor, Main Library.