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In Mozart’s opera of 1787 Don JuanLeporello, the servant of the libertine of the same name, delights in reading his little black book: the pages unfold like an accordion to reveal an extensive list of his master’s conquests. Since then, the term leporello has been used to refer to a folded book that can be read page by page or displayed in concertina form.
Collage artist Sarah Banbery specializes in bespoke leporello, which she crafts by hand as invitations, gifts and baby announcements. “I love the compact size and the challenge of creating beautiful miniature paper phrases,” she says. “I see them as visual rhymes: romantic, compelling, beautiful and witty.” She was recently commissioned to make a leporello as a gift for designer Christian Louboutin (shoe-themed, of course) and a dozen more as a thank you to guests at a dinner at the Cannes Film Festival: the leporello had an amber theme burned. to reflect the Côte d’Azur in the middle of summer and the golden logo of the production company that had commissioned them.
After a career spanning film, television, food styling and event work at Kettle’s Yard, where he worked with clients including Frédéric Malle and Antony Gormley, Banbery decided to set up his own company from his home in Kent. In 2023 it launched alchemy papersIts name is inspired by a quote by Marcel Duchamp: “Alchemy is a kind of philosophy: a way of thinking that leads to a way of understanding.” Banbery explains: “You understand paper one way and, through the collage process, it becomes something else that you perceive and understand differently.” He is also inspired by the artists Joseph Cornell, a pioneer of assemblage, and Hannah Höch, one of the first to develop photomontage.
When it comes to obtaining materials, the collagist looks for monographs, magazines, engravings and second-hand books. “I like the colors and the matte texture of the old paper, I think it adds charm. Modern paper has too much shine.”
The artist works on two large tables filled with small scissors, scalpels and tiny brushes. This is where you begin to compile your findings. “I don’t start with a plan, I go where the images take me,” he says. “Often the source material provides its own story and inspiration, and could suggest a series.”
Banbery creates collage images on paper (from £100) that can be turned into cards, notebooks and other stationery, as well as prints. His latest series of six works, titled Beasts and Beautiescombines fragments of animal and human parts to form seductive creatures: in one, an Indian prince transforms into a bird-headed nawab ruler.
As for her individual, limited-edition leporello (from £500), she works with a variety of specialist suppliers: Philippa East at Seagull Binding in Rye, East Sussex, supplies folded paper, endpapers, enclosures and covers, while bookbinding paper is sourced from London Shepherds, The place of paper either Jemma Lewis Marbling and Designinter alia. For invitations and other multi-print series (from £60 each for 200 copies), she works with calligrapher Kate Ridyard and Identity Print, a printer whose clients include Victoria Beckham and Stella McCartney.
The latest offer is a christmas card (£20 for eight) inspired by an 8th-century fresco of the Coptic Archangel Gabriel from Faras Cathedral in Sudan. Dressed in robes and wings studded with eyes “because he sees God constantly,” his angel is the perfect image to kick off the holiday season.