My World of Bibliophile Binding [Watashi no seihon sotei geijyutsu no sekai] [Bound by Miura, One of 20]

Tokyo: Kyuryudo, 1980. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. The first survey of the work of one of the great bookbinders of the late 20th century, finely bound in full goatskin by the artist, with a geometrical inlay pattern, a leather chemise with laid down fiery marbled paper on the front and back, a slipcase covered in the same fiery marbled paper, an orange cloth covered slipcase, a paulownia wood (similar to balsa) two-part box, and a paper portfolio case with bone closures. In all, this is a spectacular example of fine binding at the highest level of artisanry.

This is one of twenty numbered folio-sized, deluxe copies with velvet endpapers and silvered page edges. The book was originally published at Y900,000 (about $9,000 at the time).

My World of Bibliophile Binding offers of an illustrated introduction to bookbinding techniques in Japanese (translated by Einen Miura), followed by dozens color images of Miura's custom bindings, captioned in Japanese, with the books' authors and titles in English, along with the name of the person who commissioned the work. My World of Bibliophile Binding was published in English in 1984 in a much smaller format.

Miura (b. Germany, 1940) studied bookbinding in northern Europe in the 1960s, including a stint with the Royal Bindery in Stockholm, and then opened her own bindery. She married Einen Miura in 1975 and moved to Tokyo, where she continued to work for clients around the world. She is a co-founder of the American Academy of Bookbinding, and her work has been the subject of at least three large retrospective books, of which this is the first. First edition (first printing). There are small areas near the spine where the black velvet of the chemise has offset onto the orange goatskin binding; the elaborate Russian-doll presentation cases are all fine; the fragile outer paper portfolio case has only minor wear. Numbered 20 of 20 on a laid in colophon sheet.