Gibraltar

This archival, hand-sewn journal/sketchbook is made from 100 gsm, custard Hahnemühle Ingres mouldmade paper from Germany, sewn with Irish linen thread in the linked stitch pattern that dates back at least to the Ancient Copts.  It allows the book to lay open easily to any page.

 This book’s endbands are brown and yellow cotton, and its bookmark is goatskin.  Its spine is covered goatskin, and its boards are wrapped in a retired, annotated, 1944 aeronautical map showing wartime approaches to Gibraltar and Granada.

 Treasure binding began with monks in the 6^th Century who would encrust volumes with jewels. During the Renaissance, there was a resurgence in treasure binding. This is a contemporary revival of the treasure binding in which a lucky charm has been embedded in the cover of this book.  

 The talisman in this book is a 1940 wartime Spanish diez centimos coin, made from aluminum because of wartime shortages. In spite of Franco’s pro-German leaning, Spaniards were evenly divided between the Axis and Allied Powers, so Spain declared itself officially neutral.

This book is approximately 6.5 x 9.5” with a few more than 150 blank pages.