[GBW] Weil Collection...

[Betsy Eldridge <BPEldridge@xxxxxxx>]

I thought I would send along a description of the Weil Collection, recently 
written for the brochure, to tempt everyone...  Some pieces of the collection 
have been lent to the retrospective exhibition at the Grolier Club, but over 50 
pieces will be on display at NYAM...  including some wonderful work done by 
current fine binder artists, such as Deborah Evetts, Frank Mowery, Gerard 
Charriere, and Philip Smith...  They are inspiring to see....

THE HOPE WEIL COLLECTION

Hope Weil?s collection consists of over 150 books in fine design bindings by 
45 binders.  A number of them were bound by Hope herself as she tried her hand 
at different styles, exhibiting meticulous craftsmanship and superb design; 
some were bound by her daughter, Hope Weil Levene, also very well done; and a 
few are charming collaborations between the two of them.

The collection has many examples of the beautiful work of her students, 
particularly Otti Von Wassilko, and the young binder artists she wanted to 
encourage, notably Gerard Charriere.  Impressively the collection also has choice 
pieces bound by world-renowned European binders of the first half of the 20th 
century rarely seen on this side of the Atlantic:  Roger Powell in England;  Paul 
Bonet, Georges Leroux, Pierre Martin, and Henri Mercher in France;  Kurt 
Londenberg and Ignatz Wiemeler in Germany; and Emilio Brugalla in Spain.  Perhaps 
most interesting are the excellent examples of American binders? work whose 
names are known but whose work is seldom seen, such as Thomas Patterson, 
Catherine Stanescu, Harold Tribolet, and Charlotte Ullman.  In addition, seeing the 
early works of current binder artists is a special treat.

In 1972 Hope published the poems of her friend Eleanor Wolff in a book 
entitled Spaces and then commissioned favorite binders to design and bind copies.  
Eighteen of the resulting fine bindings were shown at an exhibition at the 
Grolier Club in New York in December 1979.  In May 1981 a large exhibition of 
books from her collection was held to much acclaim at the Princeton University 
Library.  The present 2006 NYAM exhibition in honor of the Guild of Book Workers? 
Centennial Celebration is the first public showing of this remarkable 
collection in twenty-five years.

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