Final Pricing & Details on ‘To Make as Perfectly as Possible’

The price of the deluxe version of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” will be $380 plus shipping ($20 less than our target price of $400).

Shipping on the book will cost $10 for customers in the United States and $20 for international customers.

If you paid the $100 deposit on the book, you will receive an e-mail in the next two weeks from John Hoffman at Lost Art Press with easy instructions on how to pay the balance to receive your book. Your book will not ship until you have paid the balance.

Here are some answers to common questions on the deluxe version of our translation:

When will the deluxe book ship?

We hope the book will ship in early August. We are working with a different printer on this book, so we are not entirely sure (yet) when our press date will be. As soon as the printer tells us a press date, we will publish it here.

How many deluxe books are you printing?

The plan is to print 600 copies of the deluxe version of the book. Once these are sold, we will not print this edition again. Almost all of the 600 books are spoken for, but we will offer what is left here on our site. The deluxe version will be sold only here on the Lost Art Press site. We are not selling the deluxe edition through our retailers.

What will the deluxe book look like?

It will be nice – a book that we would like to have on our shelves. The book will be 12” x 17”, 248 pages, hardbound and printed in the United States. The interior of the book will be printed on #100 Mohawk superfine white eggshell paper.

The binding will be a Smythe-sewn three-piece binding with a square back plus head and foot bands. The spine will be covered in an Italian fabric that is printed in gold and black foil. The boards will be covered in #80 Mohawk loop antique vellum with a special image printed on the paper.

We had considered using calfskin on the spine but decided we preferred the cloth spine. (Wait until you see the whole package before you start howling.)

The book will come in a handmade slipcase that is wrapped in matching cloth.

Can my club/magazine/blog/library receive a “review” copy?

No. We have been approached by several clubs, magazines, bloggers and libraries about getting a free or discounted copy. There will be no free or discounted copies of this book distributed. Even I, John Hoffman and the authors will be purchasing our copies.

I cannot afford the deluxe version. When will the trade edition come out?

Work on the trade edition is proceeding, and we will have this second version of the book out by fall. It will be in a smaller size, with different printing specifications and no color photos, but it will be as nice as any other Lost Art Press book we’ve printed so far. Our target price is $60, but we are having trouble getting the manufacturing costs under control. The trade edition will be sold by our retailers who choose to carry it. Eventually there will be an e-book version of the trade book, plus other ancillary products. But I don’t have any more details other than what I’ve written above.

— Christopher Schwarz