Bound by Nicky Oliver using Faircalf

The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice
Decorated by Charles Ricketts
The Ballantyne Press, 1900

"The design is a slight departure from my usual colourful approach - I like to respond to the text of a book - each book has a different voice... a different rhythm. This is why a lot of my bindings can vary and while this text had a wealth of material, the one mental image I couldn't shake was of the character Othello - a really pissed off Othello.

I wanted to keep the design bare and raw. The Faircalf from J Hewit & Sons was perfect for the background and I made a series of linear, brass hand tools to foil the calf in an angry, scratchy way.

The scratch design was also used for the top edge and a fragment of the title was lettered onto the leather endband. The edge-to-edge doublures are hand-printed Japanese papers".

You can see more of Nicky's work on her web site, Black Fox Bindery