I started this post in July after a wonderful correspondence with Jill. Then I was overcome by events:

I was frantically rounding up binders to participate in a fundraiser for Booklyn. Today, the photos posted are of Mark Cockram’s box, followed by 3 views of his binding (Mark was assigned copy 1/10, the “deluxe” copy with all kinds of weird ephemera included. He blogged about it here. The next two photos are Gabrielle Fox‘s binding, and the last four are Celine Lombardi‘s (already sold!). Bindings by Christine Giard and Uriel Cidor are in the photography queue and five more are in the works. Many, many thanks to all of the artists who have donated their time, materials, and extraordinary skill to create outstanding bindings to raise money for a not-for-profit organization that exists to support book arts.

At the same time, I was preparing for Brooklyn BAPD, which happened last weekend, and the Editions/Artists Books Fair in November (they have really early deadlines for all kinds of stuff). In the midst of all of this, I am delighted to announce that I became the sole dealer for Timothy C. Ely. Keep checking his page on my website as I add many images and essays about his work. Prepare to have your minds blown.

Back to Jill Oriane Tarlau.

Jill spent most of her binding career in France. When she returned to San Francisco, 20 years later, she almost entirely stopped binding. Her bindings are in collections all over Europe and the United States, including The Grolier Club, The Morgan Library, and The Lilly Library. Because most of her books were in exhibitions in France, many in the US are not familiar with her work. That is a great pity because she is well-known in Europe for her unusual, signature technique of incorporating needlepoint into her bindings. Early on, her needlepoint was in silk on canvas at 30 stitches to the inch. Such fine work was flexible enough to wrap around a book. Later on, Jill moved to set-in panels of linen on canvas needlepoint at 24 stitches to an inch.

Thanks to Jill, Neale Albert, and Yves Peyré, I have managed to put together quite a selection of images of her bindings: true Eye Candy. I do not have measurements or bibliographic information for most of these. Please try to sit back and enjoy anyway.

Stickers sent to me by Jill.

 

The images below are the small catalog of Jill’s last exhibit in France.

The following images are from the catalog of Neale Albert’s collection of miniature bindings at The Grolier Club.

 

Below are some images Jill sent to me.

And, finally, the only binding by an American binder in Yves Peyré’s latest catalog.