“For us here , we have this idea that the streets of London are paved with gold, but for Holly, the streets of New York were set with diamonds—that was my jumping-off point,” she says. Etched into the book’s jet black cover is a grid evoking Upper Manhattan, a few of its streets embedded with silver bands of pavé-set diamonds sourced by London jewelers Bentley and Skinner. (The Art Deco motifs of Tiffany & Co.’s Fifth Avenue flagship were another inspiration.) Meanwhile, the spine of the book reveals a flash of silver foil lettering, the pages gleam with silver gilt edges.
But wait, there’s more! Such a book needs a way to be displayed—especially given its $1.5 million price tag. For that, Holland continued to mine Capote’s words for inspiration. “I thought, well, what you really need is a bird cage,” she says, “because there’s a bird cage in the book that’s a metaphor for female emancipation, sexual freedom, and escaping domesticity.” The idea was sparked in conversation with the book’s current owner, Paul Suntup of Dragon Rebound editions, who had originally sought Holland out to mark the centennial of Truman Capote’s birth. (The author—whose likeness recently appeared in Ryan Murphy’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans—was born on September 30, 1924.)
Holland would enlist artisan Jade Pinnell to produce a glass plinth for the book to rest upon within its birdcage, crafted by Dom Parish. (When I speak to Holland, she’s just booked a first-class ticket for the birdcage to travel with her to New York for the fair.) Parish would also make a trunk to be sold alongside the book.
Between its covers, more treasures await: This copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s includes rarely seen photomontages created by David Attie, a protegé of Alexey Brodovitch (the renowned art director of Harper’s Bazaar from 1934 to 1958), in 1956. Deemed too racy for Bazaar in the buttoned-up 1950s, Attie’s evocative and layered prints never ran; only one was later published in Esquire. Now, prints of the complete set will come with Holland’s book. (Pictured in one image? A nude woman viewed through the attenuated bars of—yes—a birdcage.)