Folio Album of 180 Blank Leaves

Washington, D.C., 1990. Fine. Washington, D.C.: [Artisanal], [1990s]. Unique copy. Pristine. Medium folio (46x32x5cm; 18"x12.5"x2"); 180 leaves (360pp). Half leather in full-grain aniline black; boards covered in laid mulberry stock. All paperblock edges marbled with crimson and black mottling. Endpapers in Turkish marbling of green and metallic gold against amaranth red. Leaves of heavy cream wove stock, unwatermarked, as for artists and calligraphers.

Note that this is not a used, vintage item. It is a Rip Van Winkle find, newly awakened from a chaste hibernation of around 30 years. Expertly bound, this blank folio album came to us, untouched, directly from the holdings of its Washington, D.C. creator. It is hefty, weighing nearly 10 lbs, so exactly 5 lbs more than Shakespeare's First Folio.

One drawback: it is not easily portable. You will not be able to stuff it into the pocket of your Shelleyan breeches when you jot down your neo-Romantic ruminations in the Alps. But its monumentality makes it perfect for the pressed flowers, Wittgensteinian apothegms, Twombly scratches, secret sorrows, or mystical formulae you want the next generation to see, and the next generation after that, and the one after that.