Engraved by Robert Gibbings

This is possibly the loveliest vellum I have ever worked on. It is veined and characterful, soft and furry, almost like suede.
The book is Engraved by Robert Gibbings, printed by Libanus Press in 1987. The engravings were woodblocks commissioned by the old Kynoch Press for a diary, with the further prospect of using them in an edition of Kinglake's Eothen. It never happened, but years later Libanus got the chance to put them through the press again, as illustrations of Kinglake's vivid description of the extraordinary Lady Hester Stanhope.
The sections are sewn through mother-of-pearl buttons to add a touch of the exotic. Otherwise, the vellum is left to speak for itself.
The box covered with a nice wiggly net stuff that I found in the Guildford College bindery, another rather odd material that makes a great surface for the box.