Max Sparreboom, Bas Teunis – Salamanders in Art and Science

Book coverMax Sparreboom, Bas Teunis – Salamanders in Art and Science
Book coverMax Sparreboom, Bas Teunis – Salamanders in Art and Science
Book coverMax Sparreboom, Bas Teunis – Salamanders in Art and Science
Book coverMax Sparreboom, Bas Teunis – Salamanders in Art and Science

This book testifies to a love of, and also a degree of obsession with, the very phenomenon of the book.

This book is packed in a very serviceable cardboard box which has an extra hinge allowing it to fold out when opened. There’s a definite need for such a protective case, as the book’s handsome, fragile exterior is easily damaged. Its hard case consists of nicely thin boards and is covered with vulnerable black uncoated paper printed in silvery white and orange ink. The case is barely any larger than the book block. This is truly a model of the art and science of bookbinding, so perfectly has it been executed. One effect is that lovers of art and nature will not be the only ones to be seized with acute covetousness.

 

The interior is characterized by a simple columnar grid, with the images arranged systematically based on content. Within that scheme they are so well positioned that they never become boring – just as well, given that even though the whole thing is largely carried along by the inherently fantastic pictorial matter, the approach is not that of your average account of historical illustration.

 

In the introduction it says ‘we have made this book as a work of love’. We believe it.

 

Edition: 2017
Language: English
Publisher: Bas Teunis Zoological Illustrations, Sinderen
Graphic designer: Reynoud Homan, Muiderberg
Lithographer: Marc Gijzen beeldbewerking & digitale lithografie, Voorburg
Printer: Lenoirschuring, Amsterdam, Saenscreen, Assendelt (binding)
Binder: Van Waarden, Zaandam
Size book block (w x h x d in mm): 217 x 262 x 26
Number of pages: 260 p.
Print run: 400 numbered
Price: € 89
ISBN: 978 90 826790 0 7
Font and foundry: Trinité No 1 (The Enschedé Font Foundry)
Binding style: sewn hardback with a flat spine, thin boards
Material: 150gsm Lessebo Smooth 1.2 White (Igepa) (interior), 140gsm Sirio Color Arancio (Fedrigoni) (endpapers), 140gsm Sirio Color Nero (Fedrigoni) over 1.5 mm grey board (binding), 1.5 mm Microgolfkarton double-sided (Koninklijke Moorman Karton) (slip case made by Marbus, Lisse), 80gsm Fasson Vellum white (Papyrus) (seal)