Boxed

solander |səˈlandə| (also solander box)
noun

a protective box made in the form of a book, for holding such items as botanical specimens, maps, papers, etc.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: named after Daniel C. Solander (1736–82), Swedish botanist.

Solander boxes have a long and relatively unchanged history. A botanist at the British Museum, Dr Daniel Solander (1736–1782), developed the well-known flat ‘book-like’ design to store his collection of botanical specimens, gathered while voyaging with Captain James Cook (Roberts and Etherington 1982; Caldararo 1993). Storage of works of art on paper in Solander-style boxes became common practice by the mid-1840s and continues to this day, due to their inherent virtues of rigidity, strength, convenience and the ability to provide protection from impact, light, dust and, to a certain extent, changes in relative humidity (RH) (Caldararo 1993).

(Source: Out of the box: measuring microclimates in Australian-made Solander boxes, by Andrea Wise, Caitlin Granowski and Belinda Gourley)

Occasionally, I am asked to make a Solander box, or a variation of, for someone special or for someone's artwork, and this type of work thrills my tiny bookbinder's heart. Last November, I was asked to make a special box to house recipes received from family and friends as part of a wedding gift. Inlaid into the top of this box, one of Gracia's postcard collages, Reading symbols formed, which seemed most apt as it indicated "much happiness... and a forthcoming wedding" and a "heart that belonged to only one". As the wedding has since been celebrated and the box filled with mementos and recipes for love and happiness, I can show you a little of it here. Olive especially loves when I bookbind up in 'her' front room, and as you can see in these photos, she really does 'own' the space and the work in it. Luckily the couple this was intended for are mad keen on animals too and so would not have minded a few of Olive's white hairs on the box.

Gracia and my An order of zines, is a boxed set of five I have enjoyed making. It isn't a Solander box but it does house paper specimens from 2013. And if you look closely, it is sure to feature a rogue cat hair or three.