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Dvotova
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Closed Sunday and Monday. Monday is paste day.

Brno, South MoraviaSince 2005

DvotovaBindery

Hand bookbinding in Brno since 2005. Rebinds, blank journals and archival boxes.

Read the key
A cloth case book standing on its tail, seen from the front left. The front cover is swung open to show a combed paste paper endpaper, and a window is cut in the spine cloth to show eight signatures sewn across three linen tapes, with kettle stitches near the head and tail and the spine lining on one side. 1 Headcap 1 2 Headband 2 3 Spine lining 3 4 Sewing tapes 4 5 Signatures 5 6 Kettle stitch 6 7 Bookcloth 7 8 Joint 8 9 Fore edge 9 10 Board 10 11 Paste paper endpaper 11
  1. 1Headcap
  2. 2Headband
  3. 3Spine lining
  4. 4Sewing tapes
  5. 5Signatures
  6. 6Kettle stitch
  7. 7Bookcloth
  8. 8Joint
  9. 9Fore edge
  10. 10Board
  11. 11Paste paper endpaper

Fig. 1 A cloth case binding sewn on three tapes

The Key to Fig. 1

Every job here touches some part of that drawing. Find the part that has gone wrong on your book, and the entry beside it says what the bindery can do.

A Binding Is There to Be Opened

I have bound books in this room since 2005, and most of the books that come through the door need less than their owners fear.

A prayer book with a loose cover usually needs a new joint, not a new binding. A cookbook falling apart at the spine can often be resewn and cased back into its own boards, with the stains and the notes in the margins kept exactly where they were. A photo album with a broken spine can be given a new one in matching cloth and go back on the shelf.

A hand binding should lie open on a table without being held, close flat afterwards and outlast whoever is reading it now. That is what everything here is for, whether it is a rebind, a journal or a box.

Jitka

How a Job Runs

Every job, large or small, goes the same four steps.

  1. Photographs by emailSend three photographs and the height of the book. The assessment is free.
  2. A fixed quoteJitka writes back with what the book needs, what it will cost and how long it will take. The quote is fixed once the book is on the bench.
  3. The book on the benchIf something hidden turns up when a spine comes off, Jitka writes before doing anything that changes the price.
  4. Collection or return by postCollect the book from the workshop in Brno, or have it sent back at cost by tracked parcel, its value covered, within the Czech Republic and Slovakia, only ever to the address it came from.

What to put in the first email is on the page for writing to the bindery.

Three Prices to Start With

Joint or spine repair, original cover kept
650 to 1,400 CZK
Full rebind in bookcloth, resewn on tapes
2,400 to 3,800 CZK
Blank journal, A5, 192 pages
980 CZK

Leather, foil titles and lead times are in the notes on rebinds and repairs. Folders and drop spine boxes are priced on archival boxes.

From the Bench

The workshop is one narrow room. A board shear stands by the window, heavy enough that it has not moved since it arrived. A standing press takes the back wall, and books spend the night in it between boards while the paste dries. The sewing frame lives on the long bench, strung with linen tapes, beside a jar of bone folders and a drawer marked paste only.

Every job still starts the way it did in 2005: the book on the bench, a look at the sewing and the boards, and a price written on a slip that rides inside the front cover until the book goes home.

Where to Next