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Vampire Hunter's Kit

Happy Halloween (a day late)!

This impressive work is the final miniature from our Pat Sweet series, and it's worth the wait!

This kit comes with everything a very small vampire hunter would ever desire for the slaying of equally tiny vampires!

It includes four books (all handstitched, with readable text) on the Uncanny, including Compte d'Erlette's Culte des Goules and a  journal, that ends in a crimson splash, and the warning to the next owner “DO NOT LET HIM LIVE”.

"Stained walnut box partially covered with draped brown kid leather with brass fixtures, filigree protective corners, clasp, and bat-shaped handles. Maker's label on interior of box: Jos. Nightengale & Sons, Supernatural and Metaphysical Supplies, Mordwyth, Yorkshire." --Catalog

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

^Stay safe from mini Vampires, little kitten!

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Kleinodienbuch der Herzogin Anna von Bayern = Jewel book of the Duchess Anna of Bavaria / Hans Mielich, Bound by Pat Sweet

This little book is certainly one of the gems of this collection!

It features gilded snakeskin covers with metal embellishments, along with a beautiful box with a descriptive booklet. It also includes images of paintings depicting the jewels of the Duchess of Bavaria. These paintings were commissioned in 1552 from Hans Mielich, the court painter of Duke Albert V of Bavaria, and were meant as an inventory of the Duke and Duchesses jewel collection. The elaborate manuscript inventory has survived long after much of the jewelry was lost, and now resides in the Bavarian State Library. (From Pat Sweets description of the project)

She also writes:

I have tried, in my presentation of the Jewel Book, to reproduce in miniature some sense of the outrageous Renaissance ostentation that makes the original such a brilliant and worldly example of wretched excess."

"The book is bound in gilded snakeskin with a beaded and embellished front panel of celadon snakeskin. The tri-fold box is bound in a gold on black arabesque pattern Indian silkscreened paper with a raised rectangle on the front bound in a textured Japanese metallic gold paper. The interior of the box is lined in a Japanese chiyogami feather print." --Colophon, in booklet

Library has number 5 of 10

Scans of the original manuscript from the Bavarian State Library can be viewed online here (Two examples below, highly recommended, the pics of the printed pages in the mini cannot do justice to details in the original paintings)

^Both of these from Kleinodienbuch der Herzogin Anna von Bayern - BSB Cod.icon. 429

You can learn more about Pat Sweet on her website: https://www.bopressminiaturebooks.com/

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The dragon gallery / [designed, printed and bound by Pat Sweet]

Another book with a fun textured cover! This book includes images of famous dragons from around the world.

"A collection of dragon portraits from all of history and all around the world. The book is bound in lizard-printed green paper, with a spine of brownish-black real lizard skin and a small line of gold metallic paper between them. There are fifty dragons in all, ranging from 5th century BC to Maxfield Parrish, all trying their best to escape from their frames."--Bo Press website.

You can learn more about Pat Sweet, and see more of her work on her website: https://www.bopressminiaturebooks.com/

^October is a good month to curl up with a dragon book!

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[Chained alchemical library] created by Pat Sweet

During the Middle Ages in Europe, books in some libraries were attached to the shelves with metal chains- long enough that they can be taken down and read at the shelf, but are still protected from theft.

Here are some examples of full sized chained libraries that still exist.

Here we have a beautiful miniature version that includes everything, the books, chains, lectern and shelf. However, it is hard to say how much protection this tiny set would provide from theft, as the entire item, shelf and all can easily fit in one hand!

"Six blank books ranging in size from 31-55 mm. chained to a wood model lectern."--Catalog

You can learn more about Pat Sweet, and see more of her work on her website: https://www.bopressminiaturebooks.com/

^These book are protected from your thieving ways, bunny! And from anyone smaller then you!

#MiniatureMonday

#PatSweetSeries

The captain's map / [Pat Sweet].

If you ever dreamed of finding hidden treasure as a kid, this mini is for you! It contains text from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and, most importantly, a map showing were the treasure can be found.

"The portfolio is bound in beige Japanese paper, and lined with paper printed with old map. It contains a tinted copy of the map on the recto, and the pertinent lines from the poem on the verso."--Bo Press website.

Micro-miniature book containing sheet of text from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and color map, each 78 x 30 mm, folded to 20 x 16 mm. Bo Press bookmark, 30 x 5 mm, slipped in

You can learn more about Pat Sweet, and see more of her work on her website: https://www.bopressminiaturebooks.com/

--Diane R., Special Collections Graduate Student

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Crown of Aves, by Pat Sweet

We continue the series featuring works by book binder/designer/writer Pat Sweet at Bo Press.

They say 'birds of a feather flock together', and this must apply to blue blooded ones as well. This little book collects bird 'nobility', with images of birds with little crowns, and humorous titles such as 'Emperor of Pheasantdum' or 'Count of Humming'.

Todays post features 3 versions of Pat Sweet's miniature book "Crowns of Aves" in different sizes. Special Collections has a larger miniature (63x59 mm), miniature (26x25 mm) and micro-miniature (11x11 mm), all shown above. Interestingly, the three versions have the birds in slightly different orders, as you can see by this page spread.

"Designed, printed, and bound by Pat Sweet for the Bo Press" [signed] Pat Sweet. Printed in Jenson and Kunstler Script on Monarch Superfine paper.'--Catalog

You can learn more on her website: https://www.bopressminiaturebooks.com/

--Diane R., Special Collections Graduate Student

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[The Book Book] by Pat Sweet

To kick off this new school year, #MiniatureMonday will be doing a series focusing on the work of the book binder/designer/writer Pat Sweet in our collection. Her minis are a wonderful treasure trove that range from educational, to silly, to spooky and gothic, and we will explore them all, ending with the spooky ones just in time for Halloween!

Today's book is a wonderful resource to learn all the parts of a book.

As she explains: "This is a little book designed to explain little books, or rather, little case-bound books. Case-binding constructs the body of the book separately from the boards, and combines them at the end of the binding process. It's a quick and reasonably sturdy way of bookbinding, and almost all commercial hardbound books are produced like this. Every part of this book's binding is labeled, and I've left the back cover unglued to show the inner workings of the spine and hinges. The pages of the book itself contain publication data, each page labeled as itself, all the way from half-title to colophon. I've included everything I could think of that a book might possess... The book also has examples of things attached to books: a bookplate, an interior pocket containing a miniature Bo Press bookmark with a tiny tassel, a binder's ticket, a slipcase, and a vellum belly band."--Bo Press catalog.

You can learn more, or check out her catalog on her website: https://www.bopressminiaturebooks.com/

--Diane R., Special Collections Graduate Student

#MiniatureMonday

Medieval Chained Library

Before the printing press really took off and made books relatively cheap and available in Europe, books were sometimes connected to the shelves with chains that were long enough to allow the book to be taken down and read, but still prevent theft. This practice died out in the late 1800′s, but a few libraries of this type still exist that can be visited, as you can see in this list of surviving chained libraries.  

This mini ‘alchemical’ chained library and shelf is much newer but still just as amazing. Created around 2012 in California by a printer and binder named Pat Sweet, the holder is made of wood and metal, while the (blank) books are stitched, with little metal embellishments on the covers. The chains are also real metal, and do keep the books attached to the shelf, although how much theft protection this would provide is uncertain, as the whole collection, bookcase and all would likely fit in a large pocket!