the whittington press 1990 andoversford (5 results)

Card Covers. Condition: Near Fine. Limited Edition. Limited Edition. [viii], 237 pp. Orange card covers in colour illustrated. One of 925 Limited Edition copies. Slight yellowing to jacket spine; otherwise all in near fine condition, clean and bright. With several inserts for Whittington Press. Colour and black & white illustrations throughout. A review for Printers & Bibliophiles. 02613093 4to.

John Randle, in his introduction, writes, ÒUnlike most other type books, this one is intended to be enjoyed for its content as much for its typographical displays, on the principle that the subtleties of the various faces are best discovered by reading and coming to appreciate them almost unconsciouslyÉÒÉthis bookÕs purpose is toÉcelebrate that typographical renaissanceÉby showing the Monotype faces held at the Whittington Press. The choice of faces, while fairly comprehensive, is inevitably also subjective, and rather than show a little of every size of every faceÉthe plan has been to showÉwhole or half pages [that] show off [Stanley] MorisonÕs legacy in its true glory." Folio. [4], viii, 126, [1, blank] [+1, colophon] pp. Illustrated with numerous wood-engravings, sketches, and three tipped-in full-color plates. Wood engravings by Howard Phipps, Robert Gibbings, Olive Kennedy, and others. Printed on Zerkall mould-made paper. Quarter reddish brown linen buckram spine over patterned boards with gilt spine. A fine, bright copy in a slightly soiled, near fine board slipcase. One of 530 copies, of which 460 copies were bound as this one.

First edition. Folio. 125 pp. Fine in printed paper-covered boards with cloth spine. Fine publisher's slipcase. No dust jacket, as issued. One of 430 (of 460) numbered copies.

Limited edition, this being one of 55 copies quarter bound in Nigerian goatskin and printed covers from a total edition of 530. Quarter Nigerian goatskin and patterned paper boards, with a similarly bound portfolio of specimen pages, folio, 37 cm, slipcased. 125 pp, ills plus separate portfolio containing 12 items An appealing and attractively-produced book. This is one of 55 "B" specials (there were also 15 full morocco "A" specials) which include a portfolio of broadsides of types and ornaments. From the introduction: "Unlike most other type books, this one is intended to be enjoyed for its content as much as for its typographical displays, on the principle that the subtleties of the various faces are best discovered by reading and coming to appreciate them almost unconsciously, rather than by learning that Caslon has a scalloped A, or Baskerville an unclosed g. .So, if this book will be picked up by the reader with no interest or concern in the differences between Fry's and Monotype's Baskerville, or who is left cold by the delightful extravagances of Garamond's italic, but who nevertheless continues to turn the pages, nothing will give its compilers greater pleasure.But this book has a more serious purpose too. The typographical renaissance inspired by Stanley Morison in the 1920s, and made real by the technical resources of the Monotype Corporation, left the world of printing with a typographical heritage unique in its five hundred year history - in its diversity, its soundness of design, its scholarship, and its sheer technical brilliance. It gave printers a hitherto undreamed of selection of typefaces to choose from, and was the basis of the era of sound typographical design that ended abruptly when hot metal and letterpress gave way to filmsetting and offset-litho in the 1970s. Suddenly, the laws handed down by God and Stanley Morison were found to be mutable. Character spacing, kerning, and alignment had until then been Fixed in Time, having been Verified in Proof (to use Beatrice Warde's phrase) and passed down to the Monotype operator in the form of solid bronze and steel artefacts, honed to an accuracy of one ten thousandth of an inch. Now, at the press of a key, all these could be changed, even the weight of a bold, or the angle of an italic. The dismal results of this versatility can be seen in most printing produced today, particularly in bookwork." The type specimens included, each of which is shown in a good selection of point sizes, are: Baskerville, Bell, Bembo, Bodoni, Caslon, Centaur, Cochin, Fournier and Barbou, Garamond, Gill Sans, Goudy Modern, Lutetia, Modern, Perpetua, Plantin, Poliphilus and Blado, Romulus, Scotch Roman, Times Roman, Van Duck, and Walbaum. The portfolio contains an interesting mix of material: 1. Kelmscott paper made by Batchelors for William Morris; 2. Heraldic watermark by Van Gelder for Lord Aldenham; 3. Broadsheet showing 96-point Caslon; 4. Broadsheet for The Brethren of the Art Workers Guild; 5. Whittington Show Poster, 2 September 1990; 6. Typographic Fountain; 7. Two Mirrors (hand-coloured by Carmen Voss); 8. Turkish Carpet (in two colour schemes); 9. Pretty Clothes; 10. Mr Berry's Garden, wood-engraving by Miriam Macgregor; 11. Four Marbled papers by Colleen Gryspeerdt; 12. Three previously unpublished illustrations for A Boy at the Hogarth Press by Richard Kennedy. Copy No. XLIX. Fine set in the publisher's slipcase, the paper surface of the slipcase being unobtrusively split along one edge.

The broadsides include items from the Press's collection of handmade papers acquired from the Oxford University Press, and four items assembled by Erik Voss. They include marbled paper samples for the Press of Colleen Gryspeerdt a hand-colored illustration by Carmen Voss, a signed Miriam Macgregor wood-engraving, and three blocks designed for Richard Kennedy's A Boy a the Hogarth Press, which are printed here for the first time. Quarto. [12], 125, [3] pp. Printed on Zerkall mould-made paper in a variety of faces and colors. Displays over twenty types. Woodcut illustrations by Richard Kennedy, Miriam Macgregor, Gwenda Morgan, Hellmuth Weissenborn and others. Three tipped in handmade paper samples. Quarter-bound in Nigerian Goatskin over patterned boards. This is one of fifty-five copies in this special binding, containing a separate portfolio of broadsides of types and ornaments. A few minor spots to spines, otherwise a fine copy in slipcase. One of fifty-five copies of this special edition, out of a total edition of 530 copies.