The bind side: Bookbinder James Tapley

Leather-bound books are becoming increasingly rare as they’re replaced by sleek, shiny tablets.

However, bookbinder James Tapley stills sees the use and beauty in books covered with gold-leaf detail instead of a screen.

Tapley is aware that some find his profession to be antiquated but he considers the intricate work he does to be a  need.

“I didn’t predict the computer or iPads,” Tapley said. “There will always be a market for what I do; it’s just that it seems the market is getting smaller and smaller all the time.”
 

Tapley first became interested in bookbinding when he was a teenager living in Lakeland. At his local library, he found a book on French decorative arts.

“I opened to this spread with very high-style, art bookbindings,” Tapley said. “These are bookbindings that use the skills of the very best craftspeople in the world. I just thought they were incredibly beautiful. That’s when I wanted to find out about bookbinding.”

Bookbinding wasn’t a skill taught in trade schools or universities, but rather, through apprenticeships. Tapley traveled to New York and then to Europe to learn the craft of bookbinding.

“I was lucky in that I got interested in bookbinding when the last really great generation of American binders were still alive and working,” he said.
 

“Ultimately, I got interested in books because I was a reader, and I still am. So the content is still way more important than the outside. God knows I’ve put some very attractive covers on some pretty dismal books.” -James Tapley 

Today, clients come to Tapley with historical first editions and rare collectables to be restored. He produces modern fine binding to replace original binding as well as creating binding for small-batch publications as mementos.

“One of the things I love about my profession is the incredible range of works that come through,” Tapley said. “You just never know what it’s going to be.”

One work that Tapley enjoyed researching and restoring was for a client who brought in a book their parents brought with them when they fled Russia. It was an illustrated atlas with the various nationalities that lived in Russia under the last czar. The book included hand-colored portraits of people and their native clothing. The book was an ethnic and geographic record.

“I did some quick research for them and found out that it was worth a couple of hundred thousand dollars,” Tapley said.

Tapley later found out the reason it was so valuable was because the czar’s court had financed the production of only about 100 copies of the book.
 

In Sarasota, Tapley has helped restore titles in the library at the Ringling Museum of Art. Currently, the Secret Garden exhibit at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens features some of Tapley’s craftsmanship in the restored bindings of the books of botanical illustrations.

Tapley treasures being able to restore these valuable titles, but the most rewarding work is in restoring family heirlooms that are priceless to their owners.

He recalls a client bringing her Bible to be repaired and wasn’t able to afford the restoration.

“Her Bible was coming apart, and the first thing she said when she came in was, ‘You probably don’t work on things as insignificant as this,’” Tapley said.

Tapley recognized the significance the book had to her and did the work in exchange for a cake she baked for him.
“You can’t put a value on that,” Tapley said. “The work I enjoy doing most is the work that matters to someone. That Bible means more to her than some very expensive book a wealthy collector is able to buy.”

When Tapley describes the process of bookbinding, it’s as though the pages are a living being.

He describes having a book clamped under a press for days because the pages have a memory in the way they are laid.
“An old binding, even if it’s damaged, is part of the history of the book,” Tapley said.

Although he prefers his work be judged by its cover, Tapley admits he often satisfies his curiosity by reading the material he’s given to restore.

“Ultimately, I got interested in books because I was a reader, and I still am,” Tapley said. “So the content is still way more important than the outside. God knows I’ve put some very attractive covers on some pretty dismal books.”