Glenn Malkin

The Wind in the Willows By Kenneth Graham
Illustrated by Judy White, some hand coloured
Published by Hand and Eye Press, London, 2021
Letterpress printed on Bockingford paper
Numbered Edition, limited to 45 copies. This is an un-numbered artist’s proof copy, signed by the artist
Private Collection, USA

Fully bound in Pentland goat leather with blind tooling, impressed leather texture, an airbrushed background and applied acrylic colour. There are hand-sewn double silk endbands and the edges decorated with sprinkled acrylic and gold leaf. Full leather doublure and paste-paper endpapers. Presented in a suede lined bespoke wooden box with decorative leather title panel to the lid.

The design is an abstracted view of the riverside upon which much of the storyline is based. The wild wood is in the background with weasel eyes peering maliciously out!

The Little Flowers of St Francis By Dom Roger Hudleston (Transl.)
Illustrated by Paolo Molnar
Published by The Limited Editions Club, Printed in Italy, 1930
Private Collection, USA

The book is bound in full natural goat and airbrushed with acrylic inks and with back-pared onlaid leather lines and detail. The top edge is polished and decorated with sprinkled gold leaf, with other edges left untrimmed. Hand-sewn silk end bands. Inside there are full leather doublures decorated with leather onlays, and suede endpapers. Presented in a bespoke suede-lined wooden box with leather panel to the lid.

The design is an abstracted representation of the Umbrian agricultural countryside and the hilltop Basilica of St Francis in Assisi.

The Helen Fragments
Translated from Homer’s Iliad by Richard Seibert
Illustrated by Winifred McNeill
Published by Editions Koch for the Open-Set Competition 2024
Signed by the translator and illustrator
Private Collection, USA

Three-part binding structure. Craquelle leather spine with title in gold. Boards covered with spiderweb Lokta paper and decorated leather mosaic squares casually applied. Mosaic pieces decorated by blind tooling, spirit leather dyes and gold leaf, with edges coloured with black ink. Hand-sewn multicoloured silk endbands. The top edge of the book is decorated with acrylic ink, sprinkled gold leaf and gauffered impressions. The other edges are left deckled. There are full edge-to-edge leather doublures inlaid with raised mosaic pieces. Suede endpapers.

The design is inspired by the many representations of Helen found in ancient Mediterranean mosaics, the loose placement of the pieces and the random decoration alluding to the chosen fragments of Homer’s original text creating beauty from partial form.

The Art Thief
By Michael Finkel
Published by Simon & Schuster, 2023
Oil Paintings by Wayne Malkin

For sale: £2,200

Bound in full goat leather over relief details. The book is adhesive bound, as published, with strengthened spine, rounded and boards secured with adapted K118 structure. Hand-sewn double-core silk endbands with gold leaf sprinkled book edges. Suede endpapers and collaged paper doublures. The binding incorporates three original oil paintings by Wayne Malkin on paper, after the artists JMW Turner, Charles Angrand and Whistler.

The design represents a gallery wall where several unnamed canvasses have been stolen revealing the wooden stretchers in the frames. The doublures represent the reverse of paintings with the remains of typical gallery/exhibition stickers and marks.

Orbital
Commission Binding for the Booker Foundation
By Samantha Harvey
Published by Jonathan Cape, 2023
Awarded to the Author of this Booker Prize winning book

The book is sewn onto four linen tapes, trimmed and edge decorated with acrylics and sprinkled palladium leaf. The hand-sewn endbands are silk. It is bound in full dark blue Pentland goatskin, airbrushed with black and white acrylic inks. The leather inlaid circles are surrounded by channels painted with blue acrylic and are decorated with leather dyes and acrylics including craquelle details. The doublures are edge-to-edge airbrushed Pentland leather with an inlaid dot of pale blue. The endpapers are dyed spiderweb Lokta paper. The book is presented in a bespoke wooden box lined with suede, with a lifting ribbon and a decorative leather title panel on the lid.

Harvey’s book follows the thoughts, emotions and actions of the crew of six aboard the International Space Station as they repeatedly circle the Earth over a twenty four hour period. The design represents the sixteen orbits they make during this time. Each circle on the cover suggests a different abstracted view of part of our planet as the space station crosses our globe, set against a background of our own galaxy. The doublures feature a representation of Carl Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’, a view of our own planet from a distant spaceship and which highlights the author’s vivid exploration of our own insignificance in the cosmic timeline. The image on the box, beneath the title, represents the earth’s fragile atmosphere as might be seen by the astronauts.

Vol Du Nuit (The Night Flight) by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Illustrated by Denis Fauvel & Brigitte Loviton
Published by Biennales Mondiales de la Reluire D’Art, 2023, (French language)
Bound for the biannual French Bookbinding competition ‘Biennales Mondiales de la Reluire D’Art’

Sewn onto five linen tapes and bound with multiple overlapping pieces of Hewit’s straight grained goat leather to give a three-dimensional texture. Airbrushed and tooled with silver and gold details. Full black leather doublures and midnight blue suede endpapers. Hand-sewn silk endbands. Presented in a suede-lined drop-back box with decorative design to the front recessed panel and titled on the spine.

The design represents the arrival of a postal plane through a stormy night to an unnamed South American coastal city in the 1920s.

Available for sale: This book has some internal water damage due to flooding whilst on exhibition in France. The external binding itself is unaffected. If you are interested in acquiring this binding, please contact me for photographs and further information.

La Nature de Chaumet
Chaumet, Paris, 2016
Bound in 2021
318 x 234 x 30mm

For sale: £1750

This is a lavishly illustrated catalogue produced on quality paper from one of Paris’ most famous jewellers, celebrating their collection of gems inspired by nature. Exhibited around the UK as part of the Designer Bookbinders International Competition 2022

Tessellated impressed leather elements over Nepalese hand-made paper beneath with matching doublures. Leather spine with tooled title. Suede endpapers and silk endbands. Edges decorated with acrylic and tooled lines. Presented in a bespoke wooden box. The design reflects the facets of the gems within which are inspired by natural flora.

The Collected Stories of Nikolai Gogol
Illustrated by Peter Suart
The Folio Society, 2009
160 x 235mm
Bound in 2010

For Sale: £995.00

Full bound in rough natural goat, airbrushed and painted, over painted and textured natural goat covered boards. Distressed paper label to the spine. Full brown goatskin doublures and suede endpapers. This photograph shows the detail of hand-sewn silk endbands and the edges being decorated with acrylics. Presented in a bespoke suede-lined drop-back box.
The design of the binding represents the crumbling plasterwork of the buildings in the towns, illustrating the lowly and depressed social settings for several of the stories contained within.
Winner of Highly Commended prize in the Designer Bookbinders annual competition 2010.

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
Illustrated by Marc Burckhardt
The Folio Society, 2017
250 x 160mm
Bound in 2018
Private Collection

Bound in full Pentland goatskin with airbrushed background and design features. Tooled in gold and carbon. The head and tail book edges are decorated with acrylics. Full leather doublures incorporating words from the book blocked in gold across front and rear. Hand sewn silk endbands. Presented in a bespoke suede-lined wooden box with a titled leather panel to the lid reflecting the design of the binding.

Winner of a Highly Commended prize in the Designer Bookbinders annual competition 2018.