I was saddened to read of Allan Grace's passing. It was always a pleasure to work with him, as he genuinely enjoyed his craft. Alan bound the limited, leatherbound editions of the three books I wrote as part of the Complete Guide series. I had him prepare 25 of each, Number One always going to Armand Champa, and Number Two remaining with me. I'm attaching a couple of scans that give some impression of the quality of his work, though this is already well known to readers of The E-Sylum.

I also had him bind my set of Wilson's Numismatic Repository, and the result was especially pleasing. I was going to call upon him again for my coin board book, but the expense of self-publishing precluded taking this step at the time. I'd found that the market for these limited editions seemed to decline a bit after Armand's passing, and copies of the last one I did lingered for awhile. I still have ten untrimmed sets of signatures for the coin board book, so I may yet do something with these, but it won't be the same without Alan's superb touch.

I had just talked to Allan a couple of weeks ago at the most..... He had just completed binding of several volumes for me and making me some slipcases....i had no indication he was sick. i had sent him my set of Loubat to have bound in crimson and marbled boards back in February, and we talked about the snow they had in Dawsonville and then the person who supplied his marbled paper let him down and he had to get it somewhere else. Other than the fact that he said he was getting over a cold, that's all i know.

i have been dealing with Allan and Maureen since he set up shop outside of Louisville in Lagrange, and followed him throughout his various locations.....he is a very good bookbinder and a great guy, i took several items to him in Lagrange for binding and he and Maureen were very gracious..

He still had a son in school back then... this had to be 23 or 24 years ago as i took my two youngest with me and they were about 8 and 11 and they are now 32 and 35!!!!!!!!!! He seemed to be very happy in Dawsonville....he was a great guy and I for one, will miss him.