This is the Stash Book by PUEBCO, it’s designed as a cleverly hidden empty box inside a somewhat boring looking vintage book, with a number of titles on offer.
Books like this are typically added to a busy bookshelf as a way of keeping items that you want to remain hidden, but ensuring they stay close at hand if you ever need them.
Books like this are typically added to a busy bookshelf as a way of keeping items that you want to remain hidden, but ensuring they stay close at hand if you ever need them.
PUEBCO: A History Speedrun
PUEBCO is a Japanese design company founded in 2007 by Hirotaka Tanaka. Based in Tokyo, the company began with a mission to create well-designed, utilitarian household goods using recycled materials and surplus industrial gear.
Tanaka had previously worked in product planning, he was inspired by the overlooked functionality of everyday industrial items. Rather than focusing on traditional aesthetics, PUEBCO explains that they emphasize purpose, material texture, and repurposing in its product design.
From the outset, the company’s catalog included items like unusual storage containers, cleaning tools, homewares, and apparel, often built from salvaged fabrics or upcycled metals. Many of PUEBCO’s early products were manufactured in India, where Watanabe sourced surplus military canvas and industrial offcuts.
The company slowly established long-term relationships with small-scale factories and craftspeople, allowing it to produce items in limited batches without the need for mass production infrastructure.
Inside there is a modest amount of space, enough to hid things like SD cards, a hip flask, cigarettes, a portable hard drive, or whatever else takes your fancy.
Products are often unlabelled or minimally marked, and imperfections are preserved rather than corrected. This philosophy stands in contrast to contemporary Japanese design, which often favors minimalism with a high-gloss finish. PUEBCO’s approach instead reflects a post-industrial sensibility, influenced by wartime surplus stores, vintage hardware, and utilitarian design cues from the mid-20th century.
As the brand grew, PUEBCO expanded internationally, establishing a retail presence in select concept stores and opening its own flagship store in Tokyo’s Nakameguro district. The store acts as both a showroom and an archive of the company’s evolving product line.
Over time, the catalog has included everything from toolboxes and laboratory glassware to home linens and repurposed fabric bags made from old uniforms.
The PUEBCO Stash Book
The PUEBCO Stash Book allows anyone to hide away small items while still keeping them close at hand. There are a number of faux book titles available, we’ve shown some of them here above and below, all are meant to be so boring looking that no one will ever take it off the book shelf for a closer look.
There are a number of faux book titles available, we’ve shown some of them here above and below, all are meant to be so boring looking that no one will ever take it off the book shelf for a closer look.
Inside there is a modest amount of space, enough to hid things like SD cards, a hip flask, cigarettes, a portable hard drive, or whatever else takes your fancy. The sizing of each book does vary, but it seems to average out at around 8 inches high, 5.5 inches wide, and 1 inch thick.
Each one has a velvet-lined interior and they can be ordered directly from PUEBCO here on their online store.
Images courtesy of PUEBCO
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.