There are about five leather book publishers which I kenna of, and of the five, I can say that three of them are still active (and one I think might be dead). I shall addreß my advise in a useful manner; from the best publisher to the least best. (Note: skip to the last two publishers to hear my real warnings on who or what to avoid.)
Easton Preß.
There is not much to say here regarding advice, you get Easton whenever you are able to. Easton is by far the highest quality of leather book production. As far as I am aware, all of their books are always full-bound leather, unlike one of the publishers on this list. Seriously, Easton is quality incarnate. I have roughly a good few of their books.
Gryphon Editions
This is a leathercover publisher I only five days ago discovered. They seem to have a large repertoire of philosophical, political, legal, and medical works both claßic and modern. It seems that their books are all full-bound leather, but I cannot say for certain. Do beware, as I have only just found them, I have but a single work of theirs in my collection. The one thing Gryphon Editions mißes are the Silk moire endpapers of the Easton Preß editions.
Library of American Freedoms (Palladium Preß)
This was an interesting find. Apparently there were a time when the NRA and Wayne LaPierre (whose signature is emboßed on every copy of the books) had spirit enough to fund fine leather sets of US and British philosophical and political works. Unfortunately, we come acroß our first real degrading of quality here as well: unlike the first two, these books do not have silk moire endpapers or even a silk book ribbon. Despite this, I consider selection to be great. I have a hefty few of their books.
Franklin Library
Why is Franklin Library all the way down here? Well, I need to give some (warning) advice about their books. Franklin's leather books are excellent, do not mistake me, they have silk moire endpages and ribbon markers exactly as their Easton counter-parts do. But not all of their books... are leather. Yes, indeed Franklin seems to have switched to quarter-bound leather and fake imitation 'leather' when they began nearing the end of their life (they died in 2000). Here is how you can tell what kind of material one of their books is made of. If it has silk moire endpapers and a silk ribbon marker, then it is full-bound leather. If there is a ribbon marker, but paper endpages and a strange divider in material and/or colour between the spine and the faces of the book, then it is quarter-bound (only the spine is leather). If there is no ribbon marker, then it is not real leather at all. I have about as many Easton and Franklin books now. Just one copy is full leather, the rest are not leather, and the quarter-leathers I had learned about before I ever saw one, so I have dodged them this far. The imitation 'leather' Franklin books that I have do not look or handle bad, but feeling them as you can of not real leather pulls some of the lustre out of owning them. Generally, I now see whether there is an Easton equivalent every time I am looking to procure a title, and if there is, only go with the Franklin if the Easton is prohibitively expencive.
International Collectors Library
Now we reach the extremely problematic publisher of 'leather' books. First of all, It is quite clear to me that either ICL books are not leather, or are a very cheap mixed leather. Anyway, they get lobbed into the circle with Easton and Franklin. The books do not have nice endpages, paper, or ribbon markers (I am not sure how rich the karating is in their emboßment, though I suspect ill as high as any of the former publishers), and their spines are utterly weak, cheaply built things. The book will definitely break if the pages are turned too quickly, or the book held in a certain fashion, or if the book is read too much. Suffice to say, the spine WILL break off at some point if you do not get rid of the book. So I say; avoid International Collectors Library books like the book-plague. They are portable rubbish boxes. The single reason why I own ANY of these vulgar little things is fordone they were my family's, not actually mine per se, and even then, I am selling all of them on eBay before any more of their spines (aßuredly) crack off. One more word of warning to those in book clubs: if you think to purchase low, read, and last sell well, then I beseech you not to entertain this idea. The chances of the spine breaking are so great, that a linen or board hardcover which you may keep for many decades is preferable in all manner to this monetary stratagem. And the folly continues in that ICL books are already so very cheap and numerous on the market already, it would require a great deal of patience and kenning about how whichever market you sell on operates. These are my advisable warnings.
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