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Visiting The Whittington Press
[JULY 2010]
In May 2010 Barbara Henry came to spend a week at the Whittington Press. She knew her way around pretty well as she had come two years earlier to make a film for the Center for Book Arts in New York, which can now be seen on our website. We gave her a case of Caslon type, some linocutting tools, and the use of the Fag proof press, and she set to work in her usual focussed way to print a broadside, Using Eth and Thorn. There was also a little time to visit a few other printing friends. Imagine our surprise when a copy of this book arrived a week or two later, designed and printed on the web, a tribute to the marvels of modern technology. It forms a snapshot of a week’s activity at the Press, taken by Barbara with fifty evocative photographs and a hundred simply chosen words. We decided to print a few more for friends and customers of the Press, with an added letterpress introduction, signed by the protagonists. 9 x 11 ins, 24 full-colour pages, case-bound with colour dust-jacket, with a 4pp letterpress insert, in a slipcase, 65 copies. £65
[SPRING 2010] Shortly afterwards the blocks themselves came to light, when it was realised that the non-appearance of the engravings had been a double tragedy, for on the reverse of the blocks were parts of other much larger engravings done by Rachel before the war. Due to the wartime shortage of boxwood she had sawn the blocks down to less than half size. Lost and Found will show all sixteen of the blocks for The Mill on the Floss for the first time, as well as reconstructing the larger palimpsest images on the reverse of the blocks. As Hal Bishop remarked in MATRIX 26, ‘Despite the loss of the short central section of each block, Rachel’s compositional whole is easily reconstructed by the eye.’
10 ½ x 7 ½ ins, 112 pp, set in 14-point Van Dijck, the text printed on cream Hahnemuhle mould-made and the engravings on a special making of smooth Zerkall mould-made for the engravings, in an edition of 225 copies.
[SUMMER 2010] MATRIX 29 is already overflowing with plans for topics that include the Hunt type designed by Hermann Zapf (with a specimen of the type in its three sizes on mould-made paper); wood-engravings from a pilgrimage to the south of France; the Firefly Press in Massachusetts; the Architectural Review; Monotype at the Bixlers’; wood-type in America; David Godine, the Letterpress Years; Stinehour Press; Tirzah Ravilious; letterpress in Brazil; Robert Harling; Scotch Roman; the Occasional Print Club; Italian Futurist types; the creative possibilities of ad hoc letterpress printing; the golden age of 1960’s publishing; and an item currently being vetted by MI5. A particular feature of MATRIX 29 will be the many letterpress inserts from around the world (Italy, USA, Canada, Brazil, UK). ‘Matrix … a clear and spacious attic, whose dormer windows overlook fields and trees, and in which one comes across new or forgotten, sometimes exotic, treasures.
’ ‘… that annual miracle.’ THE BOOK COLLECTOR ‘Matrix describes doings by people with great skill. But the real, and enduring strength and greatness is there is not a whisper of greed or commercialism.’ WILLIAM MASLAND, ARIZONA Hello again Rosalind, … I woke up tonight and panicked – I thought Matrix 29 should have been out already and that I missed it!! What a nightmare … Anyway, I look forward to it, now that I have calmed down... 11 x 7½ ins, about 200 pp, 630 copies case-bound in light boards £135 (subscribers’ pre-publication price, £90) 70 copies quarter-bound in Oasis goatskin and marbled papers, with a separate portfolio of additional material, in a slipcase, £365 (subscribers’ pre-publication price, £335).
LUCIEN PISSARRO — TWENTY-FOUR WOOD ENGRAVINGS FOR THE ERAGNY PRESS
In 1965 Orovida, the daughter of Lucien Pissarro who started the Eragny Press with his wife Esther in 1894, presented most of her father’s wood-engravings, and his book of proofs, to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. To mark the exhibition of the work of the Press at the Ashmolean in early 2011 we shall issue this small edition of some of Lucien’s finest engravings done for the Eragny Press, printed from the original blocks. Four of them will be printed in colour, a technique pioneered by Lucien using pale and subdued colours to build up images of great charm and subtlety. For the fifty special copies, we shall use our last remaining packet of Batchelor’s Kelmscott hand-made paper, with Morris’s primrose watermark, a paper which takes the impression of wood-engravings particularly well. For the 150 regular copies, the Morgan Library in New York has generously allowed us to use some of their recently rediscovered stock of Batchelor’s hand-made, almost identical to the Kelmscott paper, which was bought by Pierpont Morgan in the early years of the last century and has remained in store ever since. John Bidwell, Astor Curator of Printed Books and Bindings at the Morgan, and author of our Fine Papers at Oxford University Press (1999), will add a note about the provenance of this remarkable paper, which is used here again to print engravings and type, the purpose for which it was originally designed by Morris. Miriam Macgregor, whose artist-grandfather Archie Macgregor was Lucien’s close friend and neighbour in Bedford Park in west London, and knew Orovida as a child, has written a memoir of the Pissarro-Macgregor family friendship. She is also working on a wood-engraving for the book of the houses where the two families lived. This will be a unique memento of a much loved and collected early private press, whose small editions are increasingly hard to find. The Ashmolean has allowed us to bring the engravings back to Whittington to be printed, and the special copies will include a larger colour landscape engraved by Lucien in 1907 which will be re-editioned here for the first time since he first issued it in an edition of fifteen copies. 200 copies, 10 ½ x 7 ½ ins, 80pp, set in Caslon type and half-bound in the Eragny style with decorated papers, in a slipcase. 150 copies quarter-bound in buckram. £145 (£125 before publication) 50 copies quarter-bound in Oasis goatskin, with a separate portfolio of proofs of the engravings, and one larger colour landscape engraving. £265 (£235 before publication)
13 x 8½ ins, about 112 pp, set in 14-point Van Dijck and printed on Somerset and Zerkall mould-made papers, with about 100 linocuts and wood-engravings, and about 50 colour facsimiles of pochoirs and coloured linocuts, in an edition of 350 copies. 250 copies full-bound in paper printed with a colour image of one of Vance’s watercolours, in a slipcase. £175 (£145 before publication) 50 copies will be half-bound in Oasis goatskin, with a separate portfolio of a selection of proofs of the wood-engravings and colour images, and 9 original items printed by Vance, in a slipcase. £325 (£275 before publication) 40 copies will be bound in full Oasis goatskin, with printed endpapers and with a portfolio of proofs of the engravings and linocuts and colour images, and a portfolio of 20 pieces of original printing by Vance, including several booklets, and original pochoirs, etchings and linocuts, all in a leather backed solander box. £850 (£750 before publication)
[AUTUMN 2010]
Andrew Anderson’s astonishing linocuts are an arresting mix of image, lettering and symbolism. The images show strong influences of his background as an architect with a particular interest in mediaeval architecture; the lettering brings Eric Gill to mind, but with an added fluency and versatility; and much of the symbolism comes from his involvement with cathedral and church architecture. He has written about his work in MATRIX 28, pp. 9–14. He combines these three elements with immense skill and with a rare dedication, and yet his images have an astonishing vibrance and magnetism. Little known or seen over the years, hampered perhaps because of their size and the artist’s preoccupation with his architectural work, they appear here for the first time in a readily accessible form, each with a note by the artist explaining its content and symbolism. The large format of A VISION OF ORDER allows most of the prints to be tipped in unfolded. Like our Posters published in 1996, it will be a monumental volume in its own right, set in a large size of the Caslon type for which the Press has become renowned. Tom Mayo, who will be doing much of the printing of this large and unusual project, will be posting a blog giving an illustrated report of its progress. 24 x 16½ ins, about 64 pp, set in 22-point Caslon and printed on a heavyweight Zerkall mould-made paper, the prints printed on a variety of papers and tipped in, in an edition of 185 copies. 150 copies quarter-bound in buckram and printed paper sides, in a slipcase. £275 (£235 before publication) 35 copies are similarly bound, with a portfolio of a selection of the prints, including The Rock of Cashel, nine sheets joined together to form an image measuring 4 ½ x 3 ft (see Matrix 28, p. 13), in a solander box with gold-blocked leather spine. £625 (£545 before publication) [AUTUMN 2010] In February 2009 the north Cotswolds were covered by a brief but deep fall of snow. A fairytale landscape of changing shapes and patterns appeared overnight, and beside the predictable snowman on the village green a habitable igloo even appeared. Miriam Macgregor at once ventured out into this unfamiliar snowscape with sketchbook and camera, and these engravings, mostly full-page, are the ideal medium for their subject. This is the third book of Miriam’s engravings in which all the subjects are within walking distance of her cottage. Miriam is also planning another pochoir title, Chimneys in the Sun which as with New Castle (1998) and A House by the Sea (2005), will largely be taken up by our regular subscribers because of the small size of the edition. 10 ½ x 7½ ins, 32 pp, hand-set in 16 point Centaur and printed on Zerkall mould-made paper, with 24 wood-engravings, in an edition of 255 copies. 200 copies are case-bound in wrap-around decorated papers, in a slipcase. £125 (£95 before publication) 40 copies half-bound in Oasis goatskin and decorated papers, with a portfolio of a selection of proofs of the engravings, in a slipcase. £185 (£155 before publication) 15 copies bound in full leather decorated with inlays to a design by the artist, with a separate portfolio of proofs of the engravings, and with one additional colour engraving, in a leather-backed solander box. £455 (£395 before publication)
13 x 9½ ins, about 64pp, set in 13-point Bodoni and printed on Zerkall mould-made paper with about 35 wood-engravings, and some linocuts, in an edition of 300 copies. 185 copies half-bound in buckram and decorated paper sides, in a slipcase, £175 (£145 before publication) 40 copies half-bound in Oasis leather and decorated paper sides, with a portfolio of proofs of a selection of the engravings, in a slipcase, £295 (£245 before publication) 15 copies bound in inlays of Oasis leather by Lester Capon to a design by the artist, with a portfolio of engravings of the wood-engravings and linocuts, and an additional linocut, in a leather-backed solander box.
Sandy Connor’s exquisite wood-engravings have a style and scale all of their own. Living as she does in upstate New York, with a barnful of hens and geese and a garden full of flowers, fruit and vegetables, readers of her first Whittington Press book, BUSY AS A BEE, will know that she is happiest with the fruits of the earth as her subject matter. BORROWED SEEDS also takes some of its inspiration from the nearby Shaker Museum at Old Chatham. The Shakers were early garnishers of seeds which they sold in attractively decorated seed packets, and the theme of this book is the borrowed seeds from both private and public gardens which have found their way into Sandy’s garden. She has re-created four Shaker seed packets, decorated with her own hand-coloured engravings, examples of which are included with each copy of the edition.
7¾ x 5 ½ ins, 64 pp, printed in 14-point Caslon on Zerkall Silurian mould-made paper with 12 wood-engravings, some hand-coloured, in an edition of 185 copies. 150 copies half-bound in buckram with pattern paper sides, £95 (£75 before publication) 35 copies half-bound in Oasis leather with decorated paper sides, with a separate portfolio of proofs of the engravings, in a hinged and decorated wooden Shaker seed box, £215 (£175 before publication) Sandy’s Connors’ work can be seen at www.sandyconnorshoneybeepress.com
[SUMMER 2011]
Posters are by their nature ephemeral, and few of Pepler’s survive. Not long ago a collection came to light in America and, using this as a basis, this book attempts to show Pepler’s complete poster output, with a description of each poster, its provenance and its purpose. Most will be shown in full colour, printed as digital facsimiles on mould-made paper. In the special copies, a few will be reproduced as full-sized, 20 x 30 inch, facsimiles. The book will provide an exciting sequel to Michael Taylor and Brocard Sewell’s ST DOMINIC’S PRESS, A BIBLIOGRAPHY 1916-1937 which we published in 1995, showing in detail another aspect of the work of one of the last century’s most charismatic compositors and printers of metal and wood type.
13 x 8 ½ ins, about 64 pp, set in 18-point Caslon type and printed on Zerkall and Bockingford mould-made papers in an edition of 265 copies. 200 copies half-bound in buckram and printed paper sides, in a slipcase. £195 (£175 before publication) 65 copies bound in half Oasis goatskin with a portfolio of a few of the posters printed as full-size facsimiles, in a leather-backed solander box. £385 (£345 before publication)
One of the Press’ most ambitious and spectacular recent publications was David Butcher’s PAGES FROM PRESSES, published in 2006. Its notable feature was the of original leaves from the Kelmscott, Ashendene, Doves (including a vellum leaf in the special copies), Vale, Eragny and Essex House Presses. This second volume will take the story up to the Second World War and beyond, and include David’s accounts of the Golden Cockerel, Gregynog, Nonesuch, Shakespeare Head, Haslewood, Cresset and, interestingly, the Curwen Press. Once again it will be accompanied by original leaves from each Press, mounted on generously sized guards so that each side is readily accessible. These will demonstrate the varying typographical styles of the presses and show the typefaces, illustrations, decorative elements and papers they used. The original leaves chosen include some of the major works from the presses, such as the Golden Cockerel Canterbury Tales engraved by Eric Gill. The book will be a handsome volume in its own right, printed on Czech Losin hand-made paper. The leather editions contain additional and more elaborate specimen leaves, and the full-leather edition has a separate portfolio of additional leaves. The buckram, Roma hand-made and marbled paper, and leather used for the bindings, will all be in green to complement the red used for the earlier volume, which was sold out on publication. 15 ½ x 11 ½ ins, about 112 pp, set in 14-point Walbaum and printed on Czech Losin hand-made paper in an edition of 185 copies. 95 copies contain 10 original leaves and are half-bound in buckram and Fabriano Roma hand-made paper, in a slipcase. £285 (£245 before publication) 40 copies contain 15 original leaves and are half-bound in Oasis leather and paper marbled by Christopher Rowlatt, in a slipcase. £675 (£550 before publication) 50 copies contain 20 original leaves, chosen to show the variety of illustration, ornament, typography and paper used by each Press, some as double-page spreads. Bound in full Oasis leather with endpapers marbled by Christopher Rowlatt, with a portfolio of additional leaves, all in a leather-backed solander box. £1350 (£1150 before publication) [AUTUMN 2012]
Paul Kershaw is one of the most innovative and original wood-engravers of his generation. For twenty years he has lived on the Isle of Skye, walking and climbing throughout the seasons in the Cuillins, one of the most dramatic mountain ranges in the British Isles. His images of the mountains and the sea around them, many using the multi-block techniques he has pioneered, are a testament to his love and understanding of that challenging landscape. He has recently moved back to his native Yorkshire, and finally this long-planned book is beginning to take shape. Readers of his ‘High Places and Extended Views’ in Matrix 20 will know how evocatively Paul describes the scene before him in words as well as in pictures. Surprisingly, this book will be the first time these two talents of Paul’s have come together between the same covers. They will combine to describe the inspiration he draws from the mountains. As he wrote in Matrix 20, ‘An integrated life, a personal harmony, that is what I thought I could achieve; a unity of purpose to put beside all those layers of mixed up notions, indecisive ambitions and constructed intents with which I was more usually dogged. No revelation, nothing pretentious, just a quiet assurance. By the time I reached the road only a residue of certainty remained, but it was enough.’ Paul will be closely involved with the design and printing of the book, and will do the printing of the multi-block engravings himself. It will be one of the most unusual recent items to come from the Press, and one we have been eagerly anticipating for some years. 13 x 9 ins, about 64 pp, set in Poliphilus type and printed on Zerkall (for the engravings) and Hahnemuhle (for the text) mould-made papers in an edition of 225 copies. 175 copies bound in half-buckram and decorated papers sides, in a slipcase. £225 (£175 before publication) 45 copies half-bound in Oasis goatskin and decorated paper sides, with a separate portfolio of plates of a selection of the engravings, with an additional coloured print printed by the artist, in a slipcase. £485 (£425 before publication)
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