Niagra Falls Album
It is rather difficult to put an image of water on the cover of a book! This couple was from upstate New York and Niagra Falls had a great deal of meaning to them. They really really wanted a raised image of Niagra falls on the cover of their album. Working from a photograph of the falls, I set about translating it into a simplified raised design. It was a good sign that when the wife gave this album to her new husband, he immediately recogized the falls! This album is 25 pages and is 12" tall by 10" wide. The cover is navy pigskin leather over a raised & carved image of two falls that appear to one side of the niagra falls complex. There is a piece of land to the right side that juts out where tourists often stand to view the falls. This image has raised areas and also has various raised pieces covered with different colored leather (green and black) that fit into recesses in the cover puzzle-fashion. There is a raised frame around the entire image and the frame and "water" are accented with silver pigments. The couple's names and wedding date are stamped in silver foil below the image of the falls with a small leaf sprig stamped in pewter foil. A quote appears on the back cover in silver. The couple also had a clamshell box made for this album. It features a "cartoon" priest drawn by a relative that was used on all of their wedding stationery. This drawn priest figure was made into a metal die, then that was used to stamp the image on the cover of the box. The box is covered with navy vellum bookcloth. The inside of the box also had "bumpers" inside the lid that would keep the book in place while leaving space for the raised area on the album cover (so that none of the raised part of the cover would rub on the inside of the lid of the box over time). These can be seen in the photo at the bottom of this page. The cover of this album was quite a challenge! I hope it looks as much like a waterfall to everyone else as it does to me!
A book and box set like this would cost around $550.
