When one hears of the Hope Bindery and Box Co.’s top-shelf clients, it is easy to presume that the business must do work strictly for the most well-to-do individuals and institutions in the nation, if not the world.
The Vatican Library in Rome, Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London have been among the Pawtucket bindery’s customers over the years, so someone who, for instance, needs to have her grandmother’s cookbook re-bound would figure the place must be way too expensive.
Yet, such is not the case.
Owner and operator Jim DiMarcantonio, who graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a bachelor of fine arts degree in illustration in 1986, comes from a blue-collar Philadelphia background, the first in his family to go to college, and he has no pretensions about what he does. “I consider myself like a plumber,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’m the guy you call when you need something fixed.”
Although some of his clients are very wealthy, “I don’t want to be so exclusive that I am just doing things for snotty, rich people,” he said. “I don’t like to turn people away.” He still harbors “a warm spot in my heart,” he said, for customers who need something simple, such as the binding of a cookbook or restoration of the family Bible.
During a recent interview at his studio, tucked away on the third floor of an old mill, an elderly gentleman came in to drop off the next bunch of bulletins from St. Francis Xavier parish in East Providence for binding into a book. DiMarcantonio also re-binds the church’s Mass books when they wear out. “These books are from Portugal and they are very hard and expensive to make,” he said, so the parish re-binds rather than replaces them.
He will bind a college thesis for $30 to $60, the same price he charges for putting together a photographer’s portfolio. The $60 fee, he noted almost apologetically, would be for more lavish treatment of a thesis, such as those done by RISD art students who often demand unique touches. He binds yacht logs for sailors, books of pictures taken by travelers on vacation and copies of volumes produced for private occasions, such as a family or corporate anniversary.
Regarding the more expensive pieces, DiMarcantonio does a lot of binding and box work for universities, such as Brown, Harvard and Columbia, for major retailers such as Adidas-Reebok and for rare-book collectors. He shows a visitor a nifty, little, dark-brown box that he made to hold a sterling silver bear for a big Brown donor.
He restored a 1584 copy of the “Discovery of Witchcraft” for a private collector in California, a process that can cost as much as $200 per page. He is repairing a 1750s volume on Italian architecture for another collector. He is putting together a stunning, limited edition of Herb Greene photos of the Grateful Dead from the 1960s; the tome is the size of a movie poster and comes complete with a formal presentation box of a silver-gray color. He uses a variety of leather for his book covers, including sheepskin, goatskin and calf skin.
DiMarcantonio never planned to run such a successful bindery and box-making business.
After graduating from RISD, he tried his hand at illustrations because that had been his major, but a class in 3-D work convinced him that “I work a lot better in 3-D,” he said.
He took lessons from “an old bookbinder” for about 90 hours, he said, “and the rest I figured out myself.”
“The way things are going now,” he said, he’s grateful he made the switch to book-binding and box-making because “there are too many photographers and illustrators out there.” He acquired a website only about three years ago, he said, and relies mostly on word of mouth and personal referrals from customers who somehow manage to find him.
“I didn’t know where it was going,” DiMarcantonio said of his business. “I knew I liked working in 3-D with my hands and I wanted to do something that was not boring.” After a moment’s reflection, he realized that he created his business in such a way that it cannot be boring because he handles so many different kinds of projects every day. “I could go forever without seeing the same thing twice,” he said. •
COMPANY PROFILE
Hope Bindery and Box Co.
OWNER: Jim DiMarcantonio
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Book bindery and specialty-box company
LOCATION: 250 Esten Ave., Pawtucket
EMPLOYEES: 3
YEAR FOUNDED: 1988
ANNUAL SALES: WND
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
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