His well-established reputation in this field led to an invitation to help restore books in the Florence, Italy libraries that were water-damaged in the devastating 1966 Flood of the Arno River.

[1] Mostly working from his private studios, books bound by him were sold to patrons including Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, the President of France, and Pope Pius XII.

Within a few years he set up his own shop and married Martha Lena (Maly) Guyer, a Swiss artist at that time specializing in fabric design, primarily curtains for upscale restaurants.

[3] In 1949, being unable to resolve the citizenship issue with the Swiss authorities, George Baer decided to move to the US where the rest of the family joined him in 1951.

[3] Through Baer’s earlier work in restoring ancient Aramaic letters for Ludwig Borchardt, an Egyptologist in Cairo, he made contact with Prof. Keith Seele[9] at the Chicago Oriental Institute who helped him find a position in the fine binding department of the Cuneo Press.

Fine binding was a flourishing art at the time in Chicago with such binders as Leonard Mounteney, Alfred de Sauty, Harold Tribolet, Elisabeth Knerr, George Baer[10] and later William Anthony all active.

When George Baer finally retired a second time at the age of 81, he donated his collection of fine bindings and other documents to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.

When Baer first studied fine bookbinding in the early 1920s with Paul Kersten in Berlin, the decorative designs on books were traditional and often very ornate.

The small Greek orthodox bible New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which measures just 5"x3" is bound in red Moroccan Goat leather.

The final book from the Greek period is Vierzig Jahre auf dem Wasser (Forty years on the Water) by Otto Protzen.

The figure on the blue leather binding is a Greek galley (a trireme), which seems out of place for a German book dealing with modern sailing in the North Sea.

The analytical bible published in 1964 and bound sometime after that has a stark and powerful cover with the crown of thorns on the wooden cross lying in a pool of blood.

Das Lied des Friedens (The Song of Peace) by Albius Tibullus, a Roman poet is an elegy written in Latin with the German translation.

The colors of the inlaid leather represent all races of mankind, and the word PAX suggests the basic purpose of the Church Peace Union.

Each year, the Cuneo Press, where George Baer led the fine binding department, requested the production of about 100 Christmas Books to give to their valued customers.