Twelve Eight Press (8 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. Set in Bembo. One of 200 copies printed, by Peter Bonser, in black and red on antiqu laid paper; the plates printed litho in black, blue, red, yellow and green, with gold blocking added by George Percival. Quarter bound by George Percival, in crimson morocco lettered in gold down the spine, with Sanderson's Japanese Shiki silk-covered boards blocked in gold. Endpapers with a reproduction of an old engraving of Caernarvon Castle. A fine copy From the sale of George Percival's library.…

4to. creme-colored paper-covered boards, stamped in gilt. (vi), 19 pages. Illustrations by Rigby Graham. First edition, limited to "less than 400 copies" signed by John Mason of the press. A free translation of Father Imberdis's 17th century poem "Papyrus." Printed on handmade paper from the only remaining English handpaper mills; Millbourn at Tuckenhay, Wookey Hole, Hayle Mill and colored handmade paper produced by Mason at his Twelve by Eight Private Mill. These mills are all out of business now. Printed by Will Carter. Four page invitation to hear a talk by Henk Voorn at the Free Library of Philadelphia (1968) loosely inserted. creme-colored paper-covered boards, stamped in gilt. Twelve By Eight Press (illustrator).…

Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 2nd Edition. One of 1000 copies machine-set in Monotype Baskerville, printed in black on Evenside paper by Latimer, Trend Ltd. Tipped-in paper samples; illustrated with 87 drawings by Rigby Graham. Semi-stiff Elephant Hide paper boards, spine titled in gilt, upper board blocked in gold. Acetate wrapper. A fine copy. Originally published by Faber & Faber in 1959.…

Limited edition of "less than four hundred copies". Gilt-stamped Linson boards, 30 cm 19 pp, 9 plates, colour ills. Printed by Will Carter at Cambridge for the Twelve by Eight Press. From John Mason's Introduction: "We produced this book because Oliver Bayldon chanced one day to visit my small paper mill, and watched entranced the transmutation of growing things into sheets of textured paper. He came again bearing sacks of stalks, roots and leaves, and stayed himself to turn them into paper. One day he brought these verses, his own free translation from a 17th century Latin poem Papyrus by Father Imberdis S.J. of Ambert, the papermaking district of the Auvergne in France. Will Carter agreed to print it for us. Most of the white paper used for the text is from Millbourn at Tuckenhay in Devon. The small amount of thinner white was made at Wookey Hole in Somerset, Jack Green produced the grey green sheets at his Hayle Mill in Kent. The rest of the coloured paper is from my Twelve by Eight Private Mill in Leicester. Alas, no longer is paper made by hand anywhere else in England. Of this edition there are less than four hundred copies.". Copy No. 78, numbered and signed by John Mason on the limitation page. Small ex-libris of G. de Jong on front pastedown endpaper, boards a little darkened, otherwise Very Good. With four prospectuses for the book (1 printed on each of the four papers used in the book) laid in.…

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. Number 184 of less than 400 copies, signed by John Mason (with the date January 1969), printed in black (the title-page in black and red; the frontispiece in black and turquoise green; the other illustrations in chestnut brown, blue, dark green or brown) in Monotype Bembo on various hand-made papers (Millbourn, Wookey Hole, Barcham Green and Twelve by Eight). Side-stitched in one section, and bound in semi-limp Linson Vellum, blocked in gold on the spine and front cover. Endpapers made from grasses taken from the park at Blenheim Palace. Bookplate. Acetate dust-jacket and gilt-stamped chemise. A fine copy A free translaton of the seventeenth-century Latin poem `Papyrus' by Father Imberdis S.J. Signed by Author(s). …

One of "less than 400 copies", this no. 287, signed by the printer John Mason in Leicester. 8 illustrations by Rigby Graham printed in different colours on different papers. Tall thin 4to., original full cream paper covered boards, 12x8 device in gilt on upper cover, an extremely good, bright and fresh copy in the scarce original white thick card wrappers with 12 x 8 device in gilt. 19 page verse about paper making by Oliver Bayldon, being a free translation of Father Imberdis's 17th century poem "Papyrus." Various English handmade papers have been used from Tuckenhay, Wookey Hole, Hayle Mill and from Mason at his Twelve by Eight private mill.…

Soft cover. Condition: Fine. 50 sheets of paper, all in fine condition, each 12 X 8 inches, made by John Mason at his mill using various moulds, many watermarked with the '12 X 8' device, others lacking watermarks in favour of very strong textures. These papers, the last that John Mason made, contain only natural fibres (abjuring the nylon he was keen on early on), flax, cotton rag, linen, and a wide variety of of vegetable materials, ranging from nettles to bamboo. He added no colouring or dye to his pulps so the tones of the papers are caused only by the raw material. His purpose in making these sheets was to print a book upon them, but ill-health prevented it (he died in 1980) and the sheets were boxed and distributed, with a note (absent here) by The Basilisk Press, Hampstead. Basilisk Press & Bookshop Catalogue 3 list single 12 X 8 sheets at 22p and a 12 X 16 sheets at 45p. How times have changed! John Mason was born into a book making family: his father J.H.Mason, having been compositor to the Doves Press, Cobden-Sanderson and others; he himself having gone to work at Gregynog as a binder in the 1920s. He is best known, however, for the original papers he made while at Leicester College of Art and the effect those papers had in making Leicester a centre for private presses in Britain. …

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. Number 99 of perhaps 200 copies signed by John Mason (this dated November 1969), and a special copy with a unique original thread picture by Rigby Graham. Collation: 6 preliminary leaves (printed on one side only) + 35 specimen leaves or pairs of leaves of 12 X 8 paper, interleaved with sheets of plain Tuckenhay hand-made cream wove paper. Title-page (dated 1967) and heading to the colophon stamped in gold. Specimen sheets printed by various presses. Side-stitched and bound in Linson Vellum stamped in gold on the front and spine. Japanese hand-made endpapers. Acetate dust-jacket. Slipped into a white card protecting folder, stamped in gold on the front. A fine copy. Begun in 1958, the first copies were not completed until 1965, and title-pages bear varying dates. The specimen pages were printed by such presses as the Stanbrook Abbey, Samson, Rampant Lions, and John Roberts, as well as by a number of college of art presses. Bindings were in Linson or leather by arrangement with the purchaser. Probably no two copies are quite alike. Signed by Author(s).…