Inside Rarities Bookstore and Bindery’s Next Chapter

Bookbinder/Rarities – Kelly Allen-Kujawski lifting and opening the hinges. Photography by Wolf Matthewson.

Give us the backstory. Rarities started years ago as just a bindery. I specialize in the restoration, conservation and preservation of antique books and paper documents. I also handcraft journals and notebooks using binding techniques from 1452. I first learned about it through a Facebook video and then enrolled in trade schools that teach it. A couple of years into the restoration work, I befriended Allison B. Goodsell, who owned the rare book store over by URI. I had mentioned that I was looking into expanding Rarities and she offered to mentor me. COVID hit and the store closed, but we still trained. Once the store was ready to reopen, I basically took over her inventory and moved it to this location [on Main Street in Wakefield]. It’s been two years now and it’s been quite a chapter in my life. Sorry for the book pun.

So, what’s the next chapter? There is a romance in owning a bookstore: You walk in and you’re surrounded by the smell and the colors and the textures … but at the end of the day, it’s a business with financials, inventory and legalities — the list is never ending. I said to my mom the other day, ‘I haven’t made a journal in over a year, and that’s not me.’ So, it’s time to go back to what is me, and that’s being elbow deep in what I call ‘dirty book guts.’

But this pivot doesn’t spell the end of Rarities. No, I sold online prior to this and did fine because this is such a niche collection. You reach those collectors who are looking for the old and the odd. After Dec. 23, all of this inventory is going to move to my studio at Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown. Then, starting Jan. 2, everything will be listed on our website for online purchase, or you can make an appointment to browse in person.

Tell us more about your binding services. Everything is done by hand — I only use machinery to trim paper for journals and to press the books. A lot of what I do involves hand sewing and paring leather. It’s very detail-oriented. There aren’t many people who do the conservation aspect — they’re mostly restoration — and many don’t realize there’s a difference between the two. With conservation, I use as much of the original as possible with very little intervention with new materials. Whereas with restoration, a lot of clients want it to look shiny and brand new like it just came off the press.

What are some past projects you’ve worked on? My most popular requests are family bibles and cookbooks. Those are always fun because it’s preserving the family history; many were passed down from great-great-grandmothers or from overseas. Those tend to be my favorites because they are stories in and of themselves, and not just what’s written in the pages. raritiesonline.com