$1.5m One-off Custom Binding of Signed First Edition of Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Jesse Wild
Bookbinder Kate Holland
More than 1,000 white diamonds have been set into the custom fine binding of a first edition of Breakfast at Tiffany’s signed by Truman Capote which has been produced to celebrate the centenary of his birth.
A team of British craftspeople, in collaboration with US-based Dragon Rebound, have released the design which features the diamonds in a platinum setting by Bentley & Skinner. It is displayed on a cast glass plinth in an ebonised birdcage, housed in a custom-made vintage trunk, and is accompanied by a portfolio of photomontages by David Attie. It is completely unique, never to be repeated, limited to a single copy, and currently valued at around $1.5m.
The signed, first-edition text has been bound by awardwinning artist bookbinder Kate Holland. It has been bound in full black goatskin with a design of a 1950s New York street map. The main streets are platinum pavé set with more than 1,000 white diamonds – totalling nearly 30 carats and guaranteed conflict free – by London jewelers Bentley & Skinner, the same team behind Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God.
The side streets are blind-tooled and the location of Tiffany’s flagship store at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street is marked by a single 1ct emerald-cut sapphire. The doublures are black goatskin with images of Cat and a bird in flight hand-tooled in platinum and signed by the binder. The title is hand-tooled on the spine in platinum and the endpapers are photographic prints from David Attie’s original series of photomontages.
The book is displayed in an ebonised birdcage, designed and made by master cabinetmaker Dom Parish of Wardour Workshops and inspired by the recurring motif of the vintage birdcage in the book. It rests, as if floating, on a cast glass plinth designed by Kate Holland and made by acclaimed artist glassmaker Jade Pinnell. The entire piece is housed in a custom-made vintage trunk, based on a classic Louis Vuitton grey Trianon canvas wardrobe trunk.
Included is a portfolio of the full set of photomontages by photographer David Attie, who was commissioned to illustrate Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Harper’s Bazaar. When the novel was resold to Esquire after being deemed too risqué, only one of Attie’s original images was published. The full set of images have never been published in full in print until now, by permission of Attie’s son. Also included are facsimiles of original letters by Capote saying he would only let Esquire print his story if it used Attie’s images.
“Paul at Dragon Rebound had the initial idea to rebind a copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and set it with diamonds. And I just ran with it," said Kate Holland. "It was really exciting to have this opportunity to push the boundaries of contemporary bookbinding, to make something that might be noteworthy outside our small world, and to raise the profile of our craft in the luxury market.
The design had to be as stylish and iconic as Audrey Hepburn’s little black dress, without slavishly copying the all too familiar motifs already associated with Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I also wanted to resolve the predicament of how to display a book as an art object rather than as a spine on a shelf that only one reader at a time can enjoy. It’s been a long and thrilling journey. We launch at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair and serendipitously in the centenary year of Capote’s birth. I can’t wait to see where it lands in its new home.”
