Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Truman Capote

2024

A unique rebinding of a signed first edition of this much-loved classic.

A signed, first edition bound by Kate Holland in full black goatskin with a design from a New York street map of the time. The main streets are platinum pavé setting by Bentley and Skinner with over 1000 white diamonds, totalling nearly 30 carats, the side streets are blind tooled and the location of the Tiffany’s flagship store at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street is marked by a single 1ct emerald-cut blue sapphire. The title is hand tooled down the spine in platinum. Doublures of full black goatskin with platinum tooling. Endpapers are photographic prints from David Attie’s original series of photomontages. All edges graphite. Hand sewn silk endbands. Custom made solander box. The book rests on a cast glass plinth by artist glassmaker, Jade Pinnell and is housed in an ebonised birdcage by Dom Parish. All contained in a custom-made vintage trunk also by Dom Parish. The recurring motif of the vintage birdcage in the book symbolises Holly Golightly’s fear of captivity and her relentless pursuit of female emancipation and sexual freedom. Art direction and production by Kate Holland.

Bentley and Skinner - Jewellers

The London jewellers Bentley & Skinner have been buying, selling and making since 1880. This project will be undertaken with the greatest care and attention to detail by their expert craftsmen on the shop’s premises. The company is particularly known for their bespoke creations, of which the most significant is Damien Hirst’s 2005 commission to manufacture his masterpiece, the diamond encrusted skull “For the Love of God”. www.bentley-skinner.co.uk
 

Kate Holland - Bookbinder

Kate is a multi-award-winning artist bookbinder, specialising in contemporary fine bindings to commission or for exhibition. She uses traditional materials and techniques to produce a unique, modern binding that reflects the text, illustrations and typeface of the book. She also works with individuals and private presses to produce the whole book, whether one offs or limited editions. She is a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders, one of the foremost societies dedicated to the craft of fine bookbinding as well as a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) scholar and a designated Master Artisan in the Michelangelo Foundation Homo Faber guide to artisans throughout Europe. She has books in the British Library, Bodleian, Victoria & Albert and Yale University Libraries as well as numerous public and private collections internationally. She is a regular binder to The Booker Prize, features on the Headspace meditation app and has appeared on BBC The One Show. www.katehollandbooks.co.uk
 

Dominic Parish - Cabinetmaker

After a magical upbringing in east Africa, at 23 years old, Dom Parish settled in England to become a cabinet maker, enrolling at Rycotewood College. From there he was selected to become a Linley maker and spent many years in the Linley workshops refining his making skills.

In 2000, he and his wife, Arabella, set up Wardour Workshops near Shaftesbury in Dorset. While continuing to make Linley furniture they gradually built up a wide base of clients, ranging from multinational architects and designers to royal families and private collections, all require best quality furniture and very presentable packaging. www.wardourworkshops.com
 

Jade Pinnell - Glass Caster

Jade Pinnell is a cast glass artist based in the Southwest of England. She was first captivated by glass whilst experimenting with recycled bottles on a 3D design course at college.  Jade went on to study Decorative Arts at Nottingham Trent University, graduating with a First-class BA Hons Degree.  Since graduating in 2010, Jade has trained with glass artists from the UK and around the world including Australia and New Zealand. Jade creates unique cast glass sculpture from her studio in the picturesque town of Bradford on Avon. Her work has featured in many selected exhibitions and can be seen in galleries across the UK. www.jadepinnellglass.com

David Attie - Photographer

David Attie was a prominent American commercial and fine art photographer who was widely published in magazines and books from the late 1950s until his passing in the 1980s. He was one of the last great protegés of the legendary photography teacher and art director Alexey Brodovitch. Attie was best known for photomontages - highly inventive collages that he made by combining negatives in the darkroom. Brodovitch gave him his first professional assignment, which was to create a series of photomontages to illustrate Truman Capote’s newest work, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, for Bazaar in 1956. The story never ran in Bazaar due to its language and subject matter being deemed ‘not suitable’. When Capote resold the novella to Esquire, he specified that he “would not be interested if (Esquire) did not use Attie’s (orginal series of) photographs”. Ultimately only of the photomontages was used. With the kind permission of Attie’s son, we will be using two of the original photomontages within the binding and reproducing the complete set of images in an accompanying portfolio. They have never been published in full in print until now.