FalzbogenBuchbinderei / Leipzig

Bookbindery / Leipzig / since 1902

Sixteenpages,three folds.

A trade bindery that still folds with a bone, sews on tapes and leaves a book in the press overnight because there is no faster way to do it properly.

What we bind

One sheet, imposed

Sixteen pages on one sheet, half of them upside down. Fold it three times, trim the head, and the numbers run in order. This is the whole trade in one diagram.

16
1
4
13
9
8
5
12

Outer forme above, inner forme below. Page 1 sits next to page 16 and neither of them knows it until the sheet is folded.

Everything that makes a book last is invisible once it is finished: the direction of the grain, the tension of the thread, the twelve hours it spent under a weight. What you can see is the part that was easy.

Falzbogen has bound in Leipzig since 1902, in three buildings, the last of them since 1961. Fourteen binders, two apprentices, four standing presses and a guillotine older than any of us.

We bind for publishers, for libraries and for people who have one book that matters. The last of those pays the same rate as the first and waits the same length of time.

What we bind

Lead times start when the sheets arrive, not when the order does.

  1. 01

    Edition binding

    Sewn sections, cloth or quarter-leather, cased in by hand20 – 5008 weeks
  2. 02

    Conservation

    Rebacking, resewing, and leaving alone whatever can be left alone1By survey
  3. 03

    Trade sewing

    Section sewing for other binders and short-run printers50 – 5 0003 weeks
  4. 04

    Boxes and slipcases

    Clamshells, drop-backs and phase boxes, measured off the book1 – 2004 weeks
  5. 05

    Blocking

    Foil and blind, from brass, on cloth, paper or leatherAny2 weeks

Fold, gather, sew, case

Four operations, in this order, and no shortcut through any of them.

I

Fold

A sheet is folded three times to make sixteen pages, and where the grain runs decides whether the finished book will open flat or fight you for its whole life.

II

Gather

Signatures are collated in order and checked at the back margin, where the collation marks step down the spine in a diagonal you can read at a glance.

III

Sew

On tapes, on cords, or unsupported, depending on the book and the century it thinks it is from. Sewing is the only structure in a well-made book that is not glue.

IV

Case in

Boards cut, cloth turned in, the book laid into its case and left in the press overnight. Twelve hours, and there is no way to make it eight.

Structures and what they cost

Per copy, in a run of a hundred, sheets supplied. The opening angle is measured, not claimed.

  1. Editions, 20 – 500Sewn on tapesCloth caseOpens flat to 170°€ 34 / copy
  2. Editions, 20 – 120Sewn on cordsQuarter leatherOpens flat to 160°€ 96 / copy
  3. Artists’ booksUnsupported linkPaper caseOpens flat to 180°€ 41 / copy
  4. Artists’ booksCopticExposed spineOpens flat to 180°€ 52 / copy
  5. Notebooks, editionsLong stitchLimp vellumOpens flat to 175°€ 28 / copy
  6. Short run, single sheetsJapanese stabSoft coverDoes not open flat€ 19 / copy
  7. Runs over 300Perfect, PURSoft coverOpens flat to 150°€ 6 / copy
  8. AnyDrop-back boxCloth over board—€ 118 each
  9. AnyClamshellCloth over board—€ 96 each
  10. ConservationPhase boxArchival board—€ 22 each

A book that will not stay open is a book nobody finishes. Everything we do is in service of that one hinge.

Dorothea Klemm, workshop

In the store room

Held means it is upstairs. To order means it comes by the skin and you choose it yourself.

  1. ClothBuckramBamberger Kaliko18 colours heldHeld
  2. ClothBook clothVan Heek Scholco31 colours heldHeld
  3. LeatherGoatskinHarmatanTo order, by skinTo order
  4. LeatherCalfHewitTo order, by skinTo order
  5. LeatherVellumCowleyTo order, by skinTo order
  6. PaperZerkall145 gsmMould made, endpapersHeld
  7. PaperHahnemühle Bugra90 gsm14 colours, endpapersHeld
  8. BoardGrey board2.0 / 2.5 / 3.0 mmBoardsHeld
  9. BoardArchival board1.5 mmBoxes, conservationHeld
  10. ThreadLinen threadNo. 18 / 25 / 30SewingHeld
  11. AdhesiveWheat starchMade weeklyConservation adhesiveMade here
  12. AdhesivePVA, neutral—Trade adhesiveHeld

Off the bench

Work finished in the last three years, with the client’s permission to say so.

  1. 2026Proceedings, vol. 118Sächsische AkademieSewn on tapes, buckram400 copies
  2. 2026Neun StädteEdition RotpunktQuarter leather, blocked80 copies
  3. 2025Rebacking, 44 volumesUniversitätsbibliothekConservation44 volumes
  4. 2025Ein Jahr PapierStudio HalmCoptic, exposed spine120 copies
  5. 2025Gesammelte AufsätzeVerlag am RingSewn on tapes, cloth650 copies
  6. 2024Phase boxes, 310 itemsStadtarchiv LeipzigConservation310 boxes
  7. 2024A family cookbookPrivate commissionLimp vellum, long stitch6 copies
  8. 2023Facsimile, 1462 missalMuseum der SchriftSewn on cords, alum-tawed25 copies

Working with us

Quoting
Send a dummy or the page count, trim size and paper. We will not quote from a description alone.
Minimums
None for conservation. Twenty copies for edition work, because the setup is the cost.
Apprentices
Two at any time, three and a half years each, and they sew before they touch a board.
Visits
Any Tuesday. The presses are on the ground floor and the sewing frames are upstairs by the window.

Dummies, surveys, quotations

Quote a binding

Nonnenstrasse 17, 04229 Leipzig. Post a dummy and we will send it back bound, once, at no charge, which settles most arguments faster than a specification does.