The Cista Bookbag

$ 560.00 

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The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag

Introducing our newest piece of specialty book luggage, The Cista. Named after the book totes used in Ancient Rome to carry books from a library out to a chair in an open-air colonnade*, our new bag carries the same spirit of taking books with you out into the world.

Designed in collaboration with Ken Nishijo of Raregem Japan, a Japan-based cabinet-making studio and bag builder, this is a casual bag with serious construction and beautiful details. Made from #4 Selvedge Canvas (woven in small batches on looms imported to Japan from Belgium in the 1930s), and equipped with natural vegetable-tanned leather handles from one the oldest and best tanners in Tokyo. The remarkably precise stitching is all hand-done by Nishijo’s own family in his workshop. The natural canvas has a dirt-resistant starch finish, but this is a bag made to be used hard, age well, and last a lifetime.

The Cista features a large interior pocket, a zip-top closure for travel, shoulder strap with brass hardware, open back straps (for newspapers, umbrellas, a light jacket, etc.), and a big front pocket that can snap closed to make two smaller pockets (gusseted with ingenious folds to make them into smaller, book-friendly rectangles). A commodious bag that remains neat, tidy, contained and trim.

Available in Natural Classic Ecru with Natural Leather or a new version in a rich Navy blue, made with sulfur dye and a one-time, high temperature wash to prevent color transferring to clothes. The leather strapping is given a rich sheen with natural oils and the deep black comes from tannins extracted from the bark of mimosa trees.

12" H x 16" W x 6.5" D with an adjustable leather shoulder strap.

Made in Japan 

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*see Reid Byers, The Private Library: The History of the Architecture and Furnishing of the Domestic Book Room. (New Castle: Oak Knoll Books, 2021), p. 81

The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag
The Cista Bookbag

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