Upcoming Events: Boston for the Guild of Book Workers and a Lecture at Columbia University

This Thursday (October 6, 2011) in the afternoon, through Saturday (October 8, 2011) I will be a vendor at the annual Guild of Book Workers Standards of Excellence Seminar.  The two vendor rooms are open to everyone, not just conference attendees. Location: The Boston Park Plaza Hotel, located at 50 Park Plaza Arlington St.  I have some new items, including wider Swiss style knife, a bargain box full of sale items, and even a few free things.  I’ll be sharing a table with Jim Croft, who makes beautiful elk and deer bone folders, wooden boards for books, and other handmade items.  Please stop by and say hello!

Next month on November 15, 6-7:30, I will be giving a lecture , open to the public, as part of Columbia University’s Book History Colloquium.  The presentation is titled Reconstructing Diderot: Late 18th century French Bookbinding Structure. Blurb: The extensive documentation of late 18th century French book structures, as found in Diderot, Dudin, and other sources, forms a unique starting point in the examination of the larger questions associated with the history of craft and material culture, the transmission of textual information, and, of course, the history of bookbinding. Book structures of the late eighteenth century stand at the cusp of one of the most radical transformations since the invention of the multi-section codex: by the early 19th century, the machine-made cloth case binding begins to dominate bookbinding practice. In this talk, Peachey will illustrate the historical context of bookbinding through the construction of a typical full calf binding using reproduction and antique tools, while acknowledging the impossibility of doing so with total accuracy.

More information and directions at: http://www.columbia.edu/library/bhc