drop spine box


Drop Spine Boxes with Auxiliary Pockets and Folders

Drop spine boxes are the go-to solution for complete protection for valuable books. Unlike a slipcase that exposes the spine to light, dust and air, the book in a drop spine box is fully enclosed, buffering atmospheric influences and saving it from shelf-wear or the occasional bump. In most cases a basic drop spine box […]

drop spine box opened to show auxiliary storage

The design binding box for Escher's 'Fish and Waves' in full leather.

A Design Drop Spine Box for ‘Fish and Waves’

M. C. Escher’s final small-format print ‘Fish and Waves’ was included in the Dutch book De Tekens Van De Dierenrim (The Signs of the Zodiac) published in 1963. In it Escher and other contemporary Dutch printmakers interpreted the twelve signs. The owner of this copy of the book offers an appreciation: “ ‘Fish and Waves’ […]


Hugo Peller’s Pop-Up Box with a Leather Spine 10

Back in 1990 I attended a workshop led by Swiss binder Hugo Peller where he taught how to make an unusual pop-up box of his own design. (You’ll find my detailed workshop notes here.) When it is opened, the book seems to levitate out of it as if by magic. I’ve shown this as a […]

Hugo Peller Pop up box

quarter leather drop spine box with rounded spine using collage

Using Collage as a Design Element on a Drop Spine Box

  This custom clamshell box made for a copy of the Robert Frost biography (inscribed by Frost himself), A Swinger of Birches by Sidney Cox, carries the birch theme into the decorative elements on the front board and spine. The client and I early on in our discussions of the project decided upon a circular […]