club bindery
A fine hand bindery founded in 1895 by Edwin
Holden, Robert Hoe, and other wealthy American
bibliophiles, most of whom were members of the
Grolier Club. The purpose of the Club Bindery was
to provide American bibliophiles with bookbindings
of a quality equal to those available in Europe,
thus avoiding the delays and other inconveniences
of having to send books to Europe to have them
bound. William Matthews was given the
responsibility of organizing the shop, and he
proceeded to hire the Clubs' first craftsmen,
Frank Mansell, finisher, and R. W. Smith,
forwarder. Other craftsmen employed by the bindery
included Henri Hardy and Leon and Paul Maillard,
French finishers; Adolf Dehertog and Charles
Micolci, a coverer and assistant finisher,
respectively; Mary Neill, sewer; Anna Berger,
mender, repairer, etc.; and others.
The Club Bindery exerted a considerable influence
on fine binding in America; unfortunately,
however, not even the wealthiest of the
stockholders had the resources to supply
sufficient work to keep the bindery going. Efforts
to transfer ownership of the club to the employees
failed and the Club Bindery went out of existence
in April of 1909. (331 )
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