The Book Box™Company is a family Business entirely dedicated to the crafting of attractive and useful boxes from real books.

All BookBoxes™ are hand made from discarded books purchased from charities and recyclers. Each one is individually hand crafted at our studio on Vancouver Island, Canada.

Our products are not only secret storage boxes, they are also decorative accessories - innocuous organizers that are invisible in any decor.

Popular applications for BookBoxes™ are as T.V. remote control organizers, chocolate boxes at the office, key storage in the kitchen or as a cell phone caddy in the car.

BookBoxes™ can be merchandised as a gift in itself or as packaging, as gift baskets or as unique and innovative corporate gifts.

BookBoxes™ are available in three product lines; "SELECT BY TITLE', ANTIQUE (pre 1960) and REGULAR.

The product lines are distinguished by the age and condition of the books they are made from, and by the rareness of the title.

BookBoxes are priced according to their size. The four size ranges are; small, medium, large and extra large.

Only "SELECT BY TITLE' (also known as PREMIUM BookBoxes) can be selected by their title. ANTIQUE and REGULAR BookBoxes are ordered in case lots of mixed titles, (and usually in an assortment of sizes.)

Retail prices range from $18 to $50 ($US).

The crafting of BookBoxes™ involves a multiple step process, the details of which are a secret. What we can tell you is that the pages of the books are soaked in a vat of glue (starch or resin) to bind all the pages together into a solid block of paper mache. They are then clamped and dried in a steam chamber to prevent warping.

Once the pages have been hardened into a block, they are individually machined-out to create the cavity.

It sounds simple but the tricky part is speed and consistency. Working with discarded books means that every piece is essentially a one-of-a-kind effort. After fifteen years of development ,we have learned how to work quickly in the complex and ever changing world of recycling.

Handmade
The BookBox™Company is a craft business. We do it all by hand. Every stage of every piece is hand crafted, by us. There is pride in every BookBox™ that leaves the studio.

The BookBox™Company is a family business with operations in Black Creek, on Vancouver Island, Canada. Our studio is in a converted barn in a rural setting near the Pacific Ocean. (The cows have been forced to live in a shed.)

Recycling
All BookBoxes™ are made from real, discarded books. Most are purchased by weight from charities who receive the books as donations and are unable to re-sell them. Waste books are also acquired through recycling operations and from publishers or remainder dealers.

At the BookBox™Company, we strive to be environmentally responsible. Not only is our raw material (books) a former waste, but we are also careful to recycle the ground-up paper that is generated by the hollowing-out process.

History
We were not the first to think of hollowing out books, however, we did stumble onto the idea independently. In 1992 a family member's home was robbed. The thieves were in the house for only a few minutes but still managed to find all the jewelry and money hidden in the underwear drawer.

The owners of the BookBox™Company (Brian and Heather Egan) were operating a woodworking business at the time of the robbery and were therefore well equipped to experiment with clever ways to hide small valuables.

The first BookBoxes™ were given to family members as Christmas gifts in 1992 and were introduced to customers of the family's woodworking business soon afterwards.

Everyone loved them. Over the next few years sales of woodwork declined and Bookboxes™ rose. By 1996 Bookboxes accounted for 90% of sales at the Bear Creek Box Company.

In 1997 the company name was changed to the Book Box™Company. Since then we have been entirely devoted to the art of hollow books.

In 1998 we began experimenting with ways to change the original title of a boring book into a more interesting title. (A process we refer to as 're-titling' or 're-publishing'.) The technique was perfected in the Fall of 2002.

The ability to 'publish' our own books is what makes it possible to offer a wide selection of exotic and classical titles.

If this web site has not answered your questions, please email us info@BookBoxCompany.com or call our toll free number and speak to Chris or Brian. They will be pleased to assist you.

Toll free phone: 888.893.1627
Local phone: 250.337.8722
Fax: 250.337.8755

Our Address:
Book Box Company Inc
8856 LaForce Rd
Black Creek, BC
Canada, V9J 1B9

Hours of operation: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Monday through Wednesday
Pacific Standard Time