Rustie's Bookbinding 323 East 75th Street New York NY 10021
NOW
Rustem “Rustie” Gungor, who arrived in the United States from Turkey several decades ago, is one of the last of his kind. As a bookbinder, Rustie has been providing an invaluable asset to collectors since the 1960s. His tiny shop is like a museum exhibit, filled with rare tools for embossing, old guillotines, ancient presses, and piles of books with and without covers.
Like many longstanding small businesses, clientele find him through word of mouth. Years ago, Rustie moved his business to the Upper East Side from Soho to take advantage of the concentration of literary businesses. Today, his store is one of the only bibliophilic institutions around, and he is one of the few bookbinders left in the city, if not the country. Rustie enjoys working on projects ranging from fine art pieces to personal collections, one of the most memorable being rebinding an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible. He explains that this is what he enjoys about his line of work – he is always meeting others who have an appreciation for his craft. He treats all projects with the same amount of care because he fully understands the love that each client has for their books, no matter the literary piece’s extrinsic value.
THEN
Looking at 323 and 325 East 75th Street today, you might not believe that the two buildings once looked like this 1940s tax photo. This modest mid-century-looking five-story apartment building and neighboring synagogue were once two brownstone tenements with a tin roof. They were built in 1882 and designed and developed by John Sullivan, a resident of 1365 Lexington Avenue. The building was never altered to have full street level storefronts, and Rustie’s Bookbinding has operated from a tiny space in the basement since 1997. At the turn of the century the building was owned by John C. Klatzl, a New York real estate developer likely of Scottish ancestry. Mr. Klatzl was a Royal Arch Mason and an active member of the Business Men’s Democratic Association. When he died, in 1913, his estates were appraised to be circa $52,000 and included the building at 323 East 75th Street.
