The British fine presses of the 1920s and 1930s produced some of the most exciting books published in this country. They were able to take advantage of the typographic renaissance of the period, the skills of the best printers and typographers, and the huge range of new typefaces introduced by Monotype and individual foundries. At the same time there was a resurgence of the art of wood-engraving with new generations of artist-engravers emerging from the art schools, stencil-colouring briefly flourished at the Curwen Press and other autographic methods of book illustration were integrated into books. The talents of artists such as Eric Gill, Eric Ravilious, Agnes Miller Parker, Robert Gibbings, McKnight Kauffer, Edward Wadsworth, Rex Whistler and many others were employed in illustrating or decorating the fine books of the period.
This book provides a survey of the work of the major British private presses and fine publishers of the period between the First and Second World Wars, complemented by original leaves from the books that they produced. These demonstrate clearly, in the way that no reproduction ever can, the qualities of the work of each Press. The leaves show to their best advantage the range of type designs used, the formats and typographic design of the pages, quality of inking and impression, the range of hand- and mould-made papers used, the initials and decorative devices employed, and the way in which wood-engravings and other illustrations are combined with the texts of the books. David Butcher's commentary about each Press concentrates particularly on the books from which the specimen leaves are taken.
All copies include a generous selection of leaves, several of them in large formats and on hand-made papers that are now unobtainable. The specimen leaves are mounted on guards so that each side of the leaf is readily accessible and pages can be turned naturally, rather than being glued onto the pages of the book. The de luxe and half-leather copies contain up to a dozen additional specimen leaves, several of them double leaves showing four pages, and many with wood-engravings, hand-colouring or other illustrations.
Publication Details
15 x 11½ ins, 153 pp., printed in 14D Walbaum on Czech Losin hand-made paper, in an edition of 180 copies.
EDITION A Out of Print
45 copies with 27 original specimen leaves from the seven Presses. Many of the leaves specially selected for the A edition have wood-engravings, stencil-coloured illustrations and copper-engravings and are double leaves, showing four pages. Three leaves show typefaces specially designed for those presses that continued the tradition of having a proprietary typeface. Copies of the book are accompanied by a portfolio of additional leaves from the presses, chosen specially for this edition. Bound in full green Oasis leather with marbled endpapers by Christopher Rowlatt, with the separate portfolio of leaves, in a solander box. £3400 (£2750 before publication)
EDITION B
40 copies with a generous selection of 19 original specimen leaves from the seven Presses. Some of the leaves have wood-engravings, or other illustrations and initials in a second colour, and several are double leaves, showing four pages. Bound in half Nigerian Goatskin and marbled paper by Christopher Rowlatt, in a slipcase. About £1750 (£1450 before publication)
EDITION C Out of Print
95 copies with a selection of 14 original specimen leaves from the seven Presses. Bound in half-buckram with Fabriano Roma sides, in a slipcase. About £595 (£445 before publication)
List of leaves included with the A edition:
GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS
The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer. 4 vols, 1929-31. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Eric Gill.
Lamia Isabella The Eve of Saint Agnes & Other Poems. John Keats. 1928. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Robert Gibbings and engraved initials by Eric Gill.
The Guinea Series: The Hundredth Story. A. E. Coppard
OR When Thou Wast Naked. T. F. Powys
OR A German Idyll. H. E. Bates OR Crotty Shinkwin [&] The Beauty Spot. A. E. Coppard
OR The Apple Trees. Hugh Walpole. 1931-2. 14-point Golden Cockerel Type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Robert Gibbings (1 and 4), John Nash (2) and Lynton Lamb (3 and 5).
Paradise Lost. John Milton. 1937. 18-point Golden Cockerel Type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Mary Groom.
Endymion: a Poetic Romance. John Keats. 1947. Caslon type. Arnold's hmp. Wood-engravings by John Buckland Wright.
GREGYNOG PRESS
The Plays of Euripides. 2 vols, 1931. Bembo and Fairbank's italic type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by R. A. Maynard and H. W. Bray.
Caneuon Ceiriog Detholiad (The Songs of Ceiriog: A Selection). 1925. Kennerley type. Grosvenor Chater hmp. Wood-engravings by R. A. Maynard and H. W. Bray.
The Fables of Esope. 1932. Bembo type. Barcham Green hmp. Wood-engravings by Agnes Miller Parker and wood-engraved initials by William MacCance.
Eros and Psyche. Robert Bridges. 1935. Gregynog type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings after designs by Edward Burne-Jones.
A leaf from another notable Gregynog Press book.
SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS
The Whole Works of Homer. 5 vols, 1930-1. Monotype Centaur. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by John Farleigh.
The Works of William Shakespeare (The Stratford Town edition). 10 vols, 1904-07. Caslon type. Spicer hmp.
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. 8 vols, 1928-9. Caslon type. Batchelor Kelmscott hmp. Headings and initials designed by Joscelyne Gaskin; hand-coloured pilgrims drawn by Hugh Chesterman.
Boccaccio's Decameron. 2 vols, 1934-5. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Woodcuts re-cut from the 1492 Venice edition. Woodcut decorative initials based on those in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499).
CURWEN PRESS
The Legion Book. Edited by H. Cotton Minchin. Privately printed, 1929 (600 copies thus). Lutetia type. Wove paper. Initials in red designed by Jan van Krimpen.
Elsie and the Child. Arnold Bennett. Cassell, 1929. Baskerville type. F. J. Head hmp. Stencil-coloured illustrations by Edward McKnight Kauffer.
The Curwen Press Miscellany. Edited by Oliver Simon. Soncino Press, 1931. Walbaum type. Wove mould-made paper.
NONESUCH PRESS
Benito Cereno. Herman Melville. 1926. Walbaum type. Grey Van Gelder paper. Printed at the Curwen Press. Stencil-coloured illustrations by Edward McKnight Kauffer.
The Holy Bible. 4 vols, 1925-7. Monotype Plantin. Japon vellum. Printed by Oxford University Press. Copper-engravings by Stephen Gooden.
The Anatomy of Melancholy. [Robert Burton]. 2 vols, 1925. Monotype Plantin, with long descenders. Dutch laid paper. Printed by the Westminster Press. Illustrations by Edward McKnight Kauffer.
Odyssey. Homer. 1931. Monotype Cochin and Antigone Greek types. Pannekoek mould-made paper. Printed by Enschedé. Ornaments designed by Rudolf Koch.
The Nonesuch Century. A. J. A. Symons, Desmond Flower and Francis Meynell. 1936. Monotype Times New Roman. Wove paper. Printed at Cambridge University Press. Illustrations of text and title-pages reset in the original types and printed by CUP. Tipped-in specimens reset and printed by their original printers.
HASLEWOOD BOOKS
Sailing-ships and Barges of the Western Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. Bernard Windeler. 1926. Koch Kursiv type. Zanders cream laid hmp. Printed at the Curwen Press. Hand-coloured copper-engravings by Edward Wadsworth.
A Book of Towers and Other Buildings of Southern Europe. Sacheverell Sitwell. 1928. Bodoni type. Zanders cream laid hmp. Printed by Spottiswoode, Ballantyne. Drypoints by Richard Wyndham.
CRESSET PRESS
The Apocrypha. 1929. Baskerville type. Cream wove paper. Printed at the Curwen Press. Fourteen wood-engravings, each by a different engraver.
The Shepheardes Calender. Edmund Spenser. 1930. Linotype Granjon. Barcham Green grey laid hmp. Printed by George W. Jones. Stencil-coloured illustrations by John Nash.
Decorative Initial Letters. A. F. Johnson. 1931. Baskerville type. Van Gelder mould-made paper. Printed at the Curwen Press. Reproductions of older initials (I-XCV); most modern initials (XCVI-CXXII) printed from the original blocks.
27 in total.
(The portfolio will contain additional leaves from each of the presses, usually from books not represented by original leaves in Pages from Presses II itself)
List of leaves included with the b edition:
GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS
The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer. 4 vols, 1929-31. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Eric Gill.
Lamia Isabella The Eve of Saint Agnes & Other Poems. John Keats. 1928. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Robert Gibbings and engraved initials by Eric Gill.
The Guinea Series: The Hundredth Story. A. E. Coppard OR When Thou Wast Naked. T. F. Powys
OR A German Idyll. H. E. Bates OR Crotty Shinkwin [&] The Beauty Spot. A. E. Coppard
OR The Apple Trees. Hugh Walpole. 1931-2. 14-point Golden Cockerel Type. Batchelor hmp.
Paradise Lost. John Milton. 1937. 18-point Golden Cockerel Type. Batchelor hmp.
GREGYNOG PRESS
The Plays of Euripides. 2 vols, 1931. Bembo and Fairbank's italic type. Batchelor hmp.
Caneuon Ceiriog Detholiad (The Songs of Ceiriog: A Selection). 1925. Kennerley type. Grosvenor Chater hmp. Wood-engravings by R. A. Maynard and H. W. Bray.
Erewhon. Samuel Butler. 1933. Baskerville type. Japanese vellum. Wood-engravings by Blair Hughes-Stanton.
SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS
The Whole Works of Homer. 5 vols, 1930-1. Monotype Centaur. Batchelor hmp.
The Works of William Shakespeare (The Stratford Town edition). 10 vols, 1904-07. Caslon type. Spicer hmp.
Boccaccio's Decameron. 2 vols, 1934-5. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Woodcuts re-cut from the 1492 Venice edition. Decorative initials based on those in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499).
CURWEN PRESS
The Legion Book. Edited by H. Cotton Minchin. Privately printed, 1929 (600 copies thus). Lutetia type. Wove paper. Initials in red designed by Jan van Krimpen.
Elsie and the Child. Arnold Bennett. Cassell, 1929. Baskerville type. F. J. Head hmp.
NONESUCH PRESS
Benito Cereno. Herman Melville. 1926. Walbaum type. Grey Van Gelder paper. Printed at the Curwen Press.
The Anatomy of Melancholy. [Robert Burton]. 2 vols, 1925. Monotype Plantin, with long descenders. Dutch laid paper. Printed by the Westminster Press. Illustrations by Edward McKnight Kauffer.
Odyssey. Homer. 1931. Monotype Cochin and Antigone Greek types. Pannekoek mould-made paper. Printed by Enschedé.
The Nonesuch Century. A. J. A. Symons, Desmond Flower and Francis Meynell. 1936. Monotype Times New Roman. Wove paper. Printed at Cambridge University Press. Illustrations of text and title-pages reset in the original types and printed by CUP. Tipped-in specimens reset and printed by their original printers.
HASLEWOOD BOOKS
A Book of Towers and Other Buildings of Southern Europe. Sacheverell Sitwell. 1928. Bodoni type. Zanders cream laid hmp. Printed by Spottiswoode, Ballantyne. Drypoints by Richard Wyndham.
CRESSET PRESS
The Apocrypha. 1929. Baskerville type. Cream wove paper. Printed at the Curwen Press.
The Shepheardes Calender. Edmund Spenser. 1930. Linotype Granjon. Barcham Green grey laid hmp. Printed by George W. Jones.
19 in total.
List of leaves included with the c edition:
GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS
The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer. 4 vols, 1929-31. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Eric Gill.
Paradise Lost. John Milton. 1937. 18-point Golden Cockerel Type. Batchelor hmp. OR Lamia Isabella The Eve of Saint Agnes & Other Poems. John Keats. 1928. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp.
The Guinea Series: The Hundredth Story. A. E. Coppard OR When Thou Wast Naked. T. F. Powys
OR A German Idyll. H. E. Bates OR Crotty Shinkwin [&] The Beauty Spot. A. E. Coppard
OR The Apple Trees. Hugh Walpole. 1931-2. 14-point Golden Cockerel Type. Batchelor hmp.
GREGYNOG PRESS
The Plays of Euripides. 2 vols, 1931. Bembo and Fairbank's italic type. Batchelor hmp.
Caneuon Ceiriog Detholiad (The Songs of Ceiriog: A Selection). 1925. Kennerley type. Grosvenor Chater hmp. Wood-engravings by R. A. Maynard and H. W. Bray.
Erewhon. Samuel Butler. 1933. Baskerville type. Japanese vellum. Wood-engravings by Blair Hughes-Stanton.
SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS
The Whole Works of Homer. 5 vols, 1930-1. Monotype Centaur. Batchelor hmp.
The Works of William Shakespeare (The Stratford Town edition). 10 vols, 1904-07. Caslon type. Spicer hmp.
CURWEN PRESS
The Legion Book. Edited by H. Cotton Minchin. Privately printed, 1929 (600 copies thus). Lutetia type. Wove paper.
NONESUCH PRESS
Benito Cereno. Herman Melville. 1926. Walbaum type. Grey Van Gelder paper. Printed at the Curwen Press.
The Anatomy of Melancholy. [Robert Burton]. 2 vols, 1925. Monotype Plantin, with long descenders. Dutch laid paper. Printed by the Westminster Press. Illustrations by Edward McKnight Kauffer.
Odyssey. Homer. 1931. Monotype Cochin and Antigone Greek types. Pannekoek mould-made paper. Printed by Enschedé.
HASLEWOOD BOOKS
Tales from Hans Andersen. 1929. Old Style type. Rag laid paper. Printed by Richard Clay. Hand-coloured illustrations by Hester Sainsbury.
CRESSET PRESS
The Apocrypha. 1929. Baskerville type. Cream wove paper. Printed at the Curwen Press
OR The Shepheardes Calender. Edmund Spenser. 1930. Linotype Granjon. Barcham Green grey laid hmp. Printed by George W. Jones
OR Decorative Initial Letters. A. F. Johnson. 1931. Baskerville type. Van Gelder mould-made paper. Printed at the Curwen Press.
14 in total.