David Esslemont

Special bindings & enclosures

Fine bindings have always captured Esslemont's imagination. This is a selection of one-off, and edition bindings.

Usually bound in fully leather and increasingly in white alum-tawed goatskin, they present the artist with a blank canvas for a design which may continue across the inside of the boards and fly leaves.

Most bindings are sewn on linen tapes with hand-sewn endbands and leather jointed endpapers. Acrylic inks and paints are used to create the designs and may be highlighted with gold tooling. Occasionally a design may be printed directly on to the leather (see The Prelude). The books are housed in cloth covered, felt-lined, drop-back boxes, often together with additional sets of illustrations. Commissions are welcome.

Florilegium box 1

Chii recipe, deluxe binding
One of ten copies bound in white alum-tawed pigskin.

Florilegium box 1

Florilegium Solmentes Portfolio, box 1
One of two cloth-covered drop-back boxes
Box 1: 679 x 603 x 102 mm. (26.75 x 23.75 x 4 inches) also houses the book, The Making of Florilegium Solmentes
Box 2: 679 x 603 x 102 mm. (26.75 x 23.75 x 2.5 inches)

autumn special

To Autumn, special binding
Pen drawing on goatskin with gold tooling
438 x 286 mm (17.25 x 11.25 ins) inches)

The Prelude, p 140

The Prelude, special binding


380 pp., 290 x 185 mm. (11.4 x 7.3 inches)
Inkjet print on white alum-tawed goatskin.
The image is a detail from the same watercolour
used for the illustrations and continues on the inside of the boards
and across the endleaves.
Presented in a drop-back box together with
an extra set of the illustrations and one extra image not included in the book.
One of ten copies. $5000

Download flyerThe Prelude Special Binding
daniels special

All in Good Time: Reflections of a watchmaker by George Daniels
Published by Peoples Archive Ltd, 2006.

277 pp., 320 x 220 mm (12.6 x 8.7 inches)

Hand-sewn on linen tapes with hand-sewn endbands and leather-jointed endleaves.
Light brown Nigerian goatskin leather with a ‘watch spring’ spiral in gold extending across the front, back and spine.
At the centre of the spiral is a recessed panel covered by a watch glass containing a wheel made by George Daniels himself.
The book is presented in a felt-lined, cloth-covered, drop-back box. 27 copies.
Bound in 2005/6.

dear mercia binding

Dear Mercia: Paul Nash letters to Mercia Oakley (Fleece Press, 1991)
White alum-tawed goatskin painted with acrylic inks, gold tooling.
Hand-sewn on linen tapes with leather-jointed endleaves and hand-sewn headbands. Unique binding, private commission, bound in 2005.

dg special

The Wood Engravings of David Gentleman (David Esslemont, 2000), special binding.
White alum-tawed goatskin with design painted and spattered through stencils using acrylic inks,
gold tooling. Hand-sewn on linen tapes with hand-sewn headbands and leather-jointed endleaves.
Presented in a felt-lined, cloth-covered drop-back box. 10 copies. 153 pp, 250 x 330 mm.