Hoe Komt Wie Vliegt Ooit Tot Bedaren tells the story of the exciting and varied life of Rotterdam entrepreneur Dick van der Leeuw. Having become wealthy as a partner in the firm of De Erven de Wed. J. van Nelle, producers and wholesalers of coffee, tea and tobacco, he was able to lead a life of luxury centred around his passion for flying.

Matthijs Dicke’s narrative and the book’s design by Beukers Scholma are entirely taken up with van der Leeuw’s love of the silver bird which, during the interbellum, symbolized speed, freedom and faith in progress. The interior begins with eight pages of Butterfly Black with printing in PMS Silver and press varnish. The rest is woodfree matt MC, printed in duotone black and silver. The endpapers and covering paper are also printed in PMS Silver on black paper with press varnish. But that isn’t the end of the flying feeling: on the front cover and spine high-gloss silver foil blocking has been used for the title and subtitle.

The binding is also quite unusual. After casing-in, the binder has removed the middle blade from his three-knife trimmer and cut back the head and tail to make block and case level and reveal the greyboard. The right-hand side of the cover projects by a millimetre and is pasted over.

A few panel members were unhappy about the large size of the type in the captions and would have preferred to see the illustrations even larger, but most appreciated this contrariness and were impressed by the care with which the book was presented.