Hidden House Publishes Exotic Bibles

A few years ago when Duane Scoggins of Springdale started looking around for a high-quality Holy Bible to read and pass on as an heirloom, he came up short.
The Bibles he found were nice, but soft covers cracked or separated and hard cover bindings tended to lose pages. He thought something much nicer should bind the Word of God.
Before he knew it, research led him into the world of publishing and binding, and now anyone with the desire and the money can have a Bible bound in lamb, elephant, ostrich or alligator skin.
In January 2003, Scoggins — also an insurance agent — began his quest with his company called Hidden House Products. By August he had sold an order of 20 ostrich-skinned Bibles to A.G. Russell Knives of Rogers for its “Russell’s for Men” mail-order catalogue.
That order flew off the shelves, and Russell soon called back with another order for 200.
Since, he’s sold “about 1,000” books to Russell’s and recently became a certified vendor to Sam’s Club.
Sam’s won’t carry the Bibles, but instead a selection of ostrich wallets Scoggins has made with the scraps of skins not used in book-binding. (The wallets were also picked up by Russell’s.)
The ostrich-bound Bibles retail through Russell’s catalogue for $325 and only come in one color.
But custom binding of Scoggins’ King James Version, or of a family’s keepsake Bible, is available directly through Scoggins. Multiple colors, including turquoise and lavender, are available, he said.
A 100 percent alligator bound Bible costs about $1,700, because only one book can be cut from the belly skin of a common gator. But Scoggins can get about three Bibles from an ostrich hide, making it more affordable.
Scoggins orders and cuts the hides himself, but outsources the binding labor to one of two artisans.
He’s had about 1,200 “blocks,” or unbound, giant print version of the King James Bible printed, ready to be bound in a customer’s choice of exotic skin.
So far, Scoggins said, his demographic is about 50/50 between men and women.
Men pretty much order brown or black hides, but women are fairly unpredictable in the colors they choose.
He has found however, that many women like a purple ostrich bound bible because evangelist Joyce Meyer carries one.
Hidden House has shipped to the 48 lower states, England, Ireland and Canada, Scoggins said. To the best of Scoggins’ knowledge, President George W. Bush was gifted a Hidden House Bible.
Scoggins said he could get other exotic hides if a customer wanted.
“‘Course a lot of people wouldn’t want to put snakeskin on the Word of God,” he said.