You can judge a book by its cover : a brief survey of materials [Ramsey, Eleanore Edwards]

Bound in French Cape morocco; gold and blind-tooled onlays in various colors of chagrin, morocco, oasis and box calf leathers; three-dimentional tomato juice can inset in front cover; cover design forms a rebus; spine stamped in gold; doublures tooled with gold; marbled endpapers; multicolored headbands; gilt top edges; in a drop-spine case. 

Eleanore Ramsey was born in Sandpoint, Idaho and she received a B.A. in Philosophy from Coe College. Her studies in binding began with Dr. Harry Green from 1975 through 1976, where she studied American and English binding. She continued her studies with Barbara Hiller from 1975 to 1980 in the area of fine binding. In addition to accepting commissions for fine bindings, she has taught at various institutions in California and at seminars. She stared teaching in her own studio in 1980 and continues to do so. Her bindings are in private and public collections in the U.S.A., Britain, France and Switzerland and have been shown in many notable exhibitions. Her bindings have received many favorable reviews in professional publications and books.

BINDING

“The book is covered in French Cape morocco with gold and blind tooled onlays in various colors of chagrin, morocco, oasis and box calf leathers. The design is a rebus and is a double entendre of the title and author. In order to maintain the miniature scale, as for example, the bee body parts, it was necessary to make a dozen tiny fillet tools in order to carry out the design. The three dimensional can was made by combining various miniature can parts and insetting it into the board cover. Doublures have been tooled with gold, and flyleaves are made from marbled paper. The clamshell box is made of leather and decorated paper. The design for this book came about in an unusual way. I had decided on a different design but was haunted by the playful nature of the book’s title. I eventually worked out a mental image for each of the words in the title, but it was when I thought of a ‘bee’ for Bernard that designing the title as a rebus became irresistible to me – especially if the design could be worked out as a double pun.”