Bookbinders
Workshop Introduces Franz Hoffmann-Stuttgart to the International Marketplace....
BBWS is very proud of our globally exclusive distributorship with the
Franz Hoffmann-Stuttgart Fine Leathers Company of Stuttgart, Germany.
Since 1925, Hoffmann's have offered "The World's Finest Leather"
™ for bookbinding, conservation, and numerous other arts and crafts,
such as equestrian, musical, etc.
Who is “Franz Hoffmann”?
Mr. Franz Hoffmann was a bookbinder in Stuttgart, Germany in the late
19th and 20th centuries. In 1925, disillusioned by the seeming decline
in good bookbinding leather, everywhere, Franz established what became
Europe’s “go to” place for the best bookbinding leather
~ Franz Hoffmann-Stuttgart.
While Franz was not a leather tanner himself, he knew many of them
in Germany. So he strategically pulled together exclusive operating
agreements to develop and produce specific top-quality leathers &
parchments for bookbinding, and worked tirelessly with these tanners
to achieve only the “best” working formulations. We’re
extremely proud that most of these working arrangements are still active
today, and though some tanneries have unfortunately ceased operations
over the last near century, Franz Hoffmann-Stuttgart has transferred
the rare formulations to other tanneries within the FHS network.
Franz Hoffmann-Stuttgart does not have the “constraints”
that leather merchants who actually “make” their own leathers
have. Those merchants generally only sell ‘what they themselves
make’....whereas, Franz Hoffmann-Stuttgart owns & directs
a myriad of fine leather formulations and raw material lines, and by
legal agreements, appoints various tanneries to produce these lovely
‘tried & true’ leathers. Franz Hoffmann-Stuttgart
is a long standing "Developer" of the Finest Leathers for
Bookbinding!
We like to think of BBWS-Franz Hoffmann-Stuttgart as a rarity in the
world of leather. And with nearly 90 years of proven experience and
products, why not?
We believe that if Bookbinder Franz Hoffmann were with us today, he’d
say “Well done!” We are proud of the vision of Mr. Franz
Hoffmann, and the determination and love that he had for the craft of
bookbinding ~ that he spent the last decades of his life to ensure his
art would always have a “leather place” it could call home!
The Bookbinders Workshop Agreement....
The globally exclusive agreement between BBWS & FHS was firmly
'cut in stone' in July 2007 at Times Square, New York City. The three-day
meeting concluded with both parties taking a stroll through Central
Park, discussing the many new and wonderful things that were about to
be embarked upon. One year earlier BBWS & FHS had already redeveloped
the original "Medieval Alum-Tawed Pigskin," which had been
unavailable from the UK (or anywhere else) for very many years.
Franz Hoffmann-Stuttgart Fine Leathers is a line of leathers unlike
anything you've ever seen. Anywhere. While the entire Hoffmann line
contains over 260 leathers, the $50.00 sample books contain about 125
different types/colours of the fine bookbinding range.
