The private presses

Franklin, Colin

ISBN 10: 0289796202 / ISBN 13: 9780289796207

Published by Studio Vista, London, 1969

About this Item

8vo (24.5 cm), 240 pp, 15 plates. Publisher's cloth and dust-jacket (dj slightly rubbed). Inscribed on the half-title to Marianne Delvaux-Diercxsens, her calligraphic bookplate mounted on the front free endpaper. From the blurb: "This is the first full account of the English Private Press Movement which tells an intriguing story of the search for perfection. The works range from the monumental Kelmscott books of William Morris, through the austerities of Cobden Sanderson and Emery Walker at the Doves Press, to the charm of the Reverend Daniel's little books, printed so long ago at Worcester College, Oxford. The author is concerned not only with the history of the presses and their owners, but also with what they actually printed. He once again poses the question were the books meant to be read, or were they merely decorative objects? And he asks why did they so often repeat a few works, House of Lift, Sonnets from the Portuguese, Hand and Soul? Since these books first appeared, there has been a growing interest in them, which is reflected in the prices they now fetch in the sale rooms. Colin Franklin, himself a publisher, has one of the finest collections of English Private Press books anywhere. He speaks with authority not only of the Private Press movement, but also of the revival of printing which these presses inspired in British, American and Continental publishing. The book is illustrated with many examples of the work of the private presses and there is an invaluable select bibliography of the press books with some notes on recent auction prices.".

Seller Inventory # 006517

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The private presses
• Publisher: Studio Vista, London
• Publication Date: 1969
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0289796202
• ISBN 13: 9780289796207
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 610 grams
• Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Printing
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY

About this title

Synopsis

The term 'private press' is often used to refer to a movement in book production which flourished at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries under the influence of the scholar-artisans William Morris, Sir Emery Walker and their followers. The movement is often considered to have begun with the founding of Morris' Kelmscott Press in 1890, following a lecture on printing given by Walker at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in November 1888. Those involved in the movement created books by traditional printing and binding methods, with an emphasis on the book as a work of art and manual skill, as well as a medium for the transmission of information. Morris was greatly influenced by medieval printed books and the 'Kelmscott style' had a great, and not always positive, influence on later private presses and commercial book-design. The movement was an offshoot of the Arts and Crafts movement, and represented a rejection of the cheap mechanised book-production methods which developed in the Victorian era. The books were made with high-quality materials (handmade paper, traditional inks and, in some cases, specially designed typefaces), and were often bound by hand. Careful consideration was given to format, page design, type, illustration and binding, in order to produce a unified whole. The movement dwindled during the worldwide depression of the 1930s, as the market for luxury goods evaporated. Since the 1950s, there has been a resurgence of interest, especially among artists, in the experimental use of letterpress printing, paper-making and hand-bookbinding in producing small editions of 'artists' books', and among amateur (and a few professional) enthusiasts for traditional printing methods and for the production 'values' of the private press movement.