By Phoebe Neidl
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN -- A world-renowned bookbindery has moved to Brooklyn. Its owner, 74-year-old Herbert Weitz, will tell you the craft hasn’t changed much since the Renaissance – but business sure has.

After taking over his father’s rare book shop in the 1970s, Weitz turned the store’s focus to the near-extinct art of bookbinding, and has practiced the Old World trade on the Upper East Side for the last three decades. Working with his partner, designer Elspeth Coleman, they produced handmade, leather-bound books for the likes of King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Henry Kissinger, Martin Scorsese, Mikhail Gorbachev and Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

But rising real estate prices squeezed Weitz out of his former swanky address in February of 2007. “I would have needed 15 guys in there working� to pay for the rent increase, he explains. “And it would be illegal for me to squeeze that many people in there.�

So he toted his collection of 2,000 antique brass leather-working tools to a little industrial block in Gravesend, off the Avenue X stop of the F train, where, he says, he finally has room to expand his business.

During the transition to Brooklyn, there have been a few staff changes. “One or two guys couldn’t make the commute,� Weitz says, and his old partner, Elspeth Coleman, “went her own way.� But he has five binders who currently work with him, and he would like to see that number grow.

A New Chapter

Weitz now finds himself at the beginning of a new chapter in his business, and working alongside another set of artisans trained in a similarly sumptuous craft.

Weitz’s new studio is behind the marble works and luxurious, expansive showroom of Wholesale Marble and Granite Inc. Its co-owner, Ralph Baione, was an old friend, and offered Weitz the space when his studio was in need of a new home.

The two met at Giuliano’s Café in Manhattan 15 years ago, where they found they both spoke the “Brooklyn code,� and connected over the similar design intricacies of their respective trades.

Aside from the elaborate 22k gold tooling and made-to-order leather designs that are painstakingly impressed and inlayed into the unique covers that leave the shop, part of what distinguishes these handcrafted books from the stacks you see at Barnes and Noble is the way the pages are attached to the spine.

In mass-produced volumes, pages are all sewn together, then glued to the insides of the covers to hold the text in place. In hand-bound books, each individual page is sewn to a cord on the spine.

“A book, being a device for the storage and retrieval of information, should open and close easily. The pages should fan out independently, rather than turning in a clump,� he has said.

Giving an Old Craft a New Audience

Weitz has continually found new ways to keep his venerable craft alive, and seeks new audiences to appreciate its luxury. He has lectured about bookbinding at the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in Manhattan, and has donated hundreds of hours of his time in free bookbinding lessons for public school students.

And though Weitz’s shop has handled incredibly valuable texts, such as a $300,000, 15th century edition of works by the Jewish philosopher Maimonides, he has extended the craft beyond the refined world of rare books. Wedding albums have become popular, and many people bring a $20 edition of a book that they want transformed into a one-of-a-kind piece of art. Gift boxes and binders can also be the subject of the shop’s artistry. Sitting in the studio last week was a binder made for a Yankee fan, the baseball team’s iconic pinstripes and logo meticulously fashioned in leather.

With more physical space for expansion at his new studio in Brooklyn, Weitz sees an opportunity to increase his production. “I would like to leave 10 or 15 people making a good living doing this,� Weitz says. Without missing a beat, he is replacing his Manhattan storefront with a global one – the Internet.

He has just finished developing a program where customers can design their own book covers online at computer kiosks that will be set up in bookstores and bridal shops. Whether you want red leather or blue, floral designs or an art nouveau motif, they can be ordered and shipped to you within weeks. He has also reached out to a new audience with Bling Books, a web site started by an associate that markets to the Hip-Hop community, a subculture with a proven penchant for luxury items.

No Stranger to Brooklyn

“I like this shop better,� he says, despite the long commute home. He still lives in the apartment adjacent to his old store up on 90th Street.

But Weitz is no stranger to Brooklyn. He grew up in Crown Heights and attended the Crown Heights Yeshiva – though he seems to have gained a classical education by thumbing through the exceptional volumes that lined the shelves of his father’s shop. Ask him a question, he may summon his knowledge of enlightenment philosophers, central Asian warriors or obscure religious texts for his answer – though rest assured his reply will be sprinkled with some more colorful language as well.

He is a well-known New York raconteur, and he happily reports that actor John Turturro has called him the most interesting person he knows. Weitz has met a lot of people in his line of work, and he isn’t shy. He didn’t mind telling Carter’s secretary of state where he went wrong. (“I like war, the rest of history is just gossip,� he says).

Indeed, it seems Weitz’s life has produced stories on par with those that are so proficiently preserved in elegant English leather by the artisans that work for him.

Before joining his father’s trade, he did a stint in the army, followed by years as a bartender and nightclub manager at a strip of clubs frequented by ‘wiseguys’ on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn – places with names like The Silhouette and The Golden Gate. (“Would I have had access to cocktail waitresses if I had gone to Harvard?�). He’s had small roles in a few movies, and he was even kidnapped (briefly) in 1983.

He professes a love of Brooklyn, though he laments the disappearance of some of his favorite billiard halls. That omission seems slightly soothed by the fact that “a tuna fish sandwich is a buck and a half less� than in Manhattan.

“I grew up on a marvelously diverse block – doctors, postmen, cops. I missed that environment,� he says. “In a lot of ways it feels just the same, a lot of the talk on the street is just the same,� he says.

To find out more about Herbert Weitz’s studio and to see examples of their handiwork, visit www.albumsalbumsalbums.com. and custombookbinding.com

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