When you go down an old flight of stairs leading to the entrance of the bindery in an old Zagreb building, you enter a place filled with history, the smell of old books, and nineteenth-century machines.
Binding diploma, master’s, and doctoral theses, various newspapers and state newsletters, professional literature, phonebooks, and folders is not their only talent. They have had loyal customers for generations. After buying an old book, customers leave it to Ms. Hrkač and her master craftsmen to weave their magic and give the book a new life in beautiful covers.
Just as the bindery has a long history, so do the excellent master craftsmen working in it. Mr. Mladen Vitez worked for Ms. Tamara Danilović Markulj, who succeeded her father Pavao Danilović, who initially founded the bindery in 1924. Next year Mr. Vitez will have worked in the bindery with love and dedication for exactly fifty years. The youngest master has been binding books for thirty-seven years already.
They also bind photo albums and even musical notes, which is something they are actually known for. The famous late conductor Vjekoslav Šutej was Ms. Hrkač’s friend, and as a result of that friendship many other artists have sought the services of the bindery.
Photo: Davor Puklavec/PIXSELL
In addition to graduating from the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, Ms. Hrkač studied literature and art history at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the same university. It was because of her love for the arts that she started restoring old books in the first place.
Book repair and restoration set them apart from other binderies. The oldest book they have repaired is a sixteenth-century Latin dictionary. They have also been commissioned by Matica hrvatska, a prominent Croatian cultural institution, to restore an old prayer book bought in Pécs in 1845 and entitled “Vrata nebeska” [Gates of Heaven].
They felt especially honored during Pope John Paul II’s visit to Croatia, when they were commissioned by the Croatian Monetary Institute to make a folder for the photographs of ducats and gold coins bearing the Pope’s face.
The craftsmen at Bindery 1924 understand emotional attachment to books, and you can rest assured that your cookbooks, dictionaries, prayer books, Bibles, and other books that you hold dear will get there the attention they deserve by being exquisitely hand-bound.
