PRINTING CLOSE UP
GENERAL
BASKERVILLE'S PRINTING PRESS. Simmoneau's engraving of 1688 |
12 PRINTERS, Leonard Jay at the Birmingham School of Printing , |
S. AND C. STEPHENSON, Types and Ornaments 1796 |
SUN COMPENDIUM AND "HOW A LINE BLOCK IS MADE" |
PAGES
1450- 1500
William Caxton , The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers 1477 |
1500- 1550
THE HOLY BIBLE, DAY AND SERRES, 1549 (5) |
ERASMUS, GLOSS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT, 1544 (2) |
JOHN GERARD, HERBAL, 1547 (4) |
John Heywood, A Play for Love, , 1534, indicative pages |
John Heywood, A Play for Love, , 1534, indicative pages |
1550- 1600
HOLINSHED'S CHRONICLES, 1577 (4) |
HOLY BIBLE, C.BARKER 1599 (5) |
APIUS AND VIRGINIA, by R.B.1575 |
LIKE TO WILL LIKE , by Ulpian Fulwell 1568 |
1600- 1650
THOMAS DEKKER , THE SHOEMAKERS' HOLIDAY 1600 |
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, SONNETS 1609 |
RATHBONE'S SURVEYOR, 1616 (6) |
T.HEYWOOD, THE HIERARCHY OF THE BLESSED ANGELS, 1635 (2) |
DELLA PORTA, NATURAL MAGICK , 1648 (1) |
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, 1614 (3) |
ALLIANUS, TACTIKS, 1616 (1) |
PONCY, ON THE GENERATION OF MAN 1634 (4) |
I.T. , GRIM The Collier of Croyden or the Devil and his Dame, 1642 |
E.C., The Tragedie of Mariam, 1624 a few pages |
The Souldier's Catechisme, 1644, for the Parliamentary Army |
1650- 1700
SIR THOMAS BROWNE, URNE BURIALL, QUINCUNX 1658 |
JOHN SELDON, ON THE OWNERSHIP OF THE SEA, 1652 (4) |
WILLOUGHBY ORNITHOLOGY , ORNITHOLOGY, 1676 (2) |
MILTON,PARADISE LOST, 1669 |
A DIATRIBE OF MONY OR COYN, Edward Leigh 1671 |
1700-1750
HANS SLOANE, NATURAL HISTORY OF JAMAICA, 1707 1725 (3) |
THOMAS WARTON, POEMS 1748 |
1750-1800
JOHN GAY, THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, 1751 text(2) and score (1) |
SAMUEL JOHNSON, DICTIONARY 1755 (2) |
CHRISTOPHER SMART, A SONG TO DAVID 1763 |
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER / BOOK OF PSALMS 1756 |
1800-1850
JOHN KEATS, POEMS 1817 |
1850-1900
1900-1950
Goethe's PROMETHEUS KLEUKENS PRESSE |
TYPES
THE STEEL ENGRAVED GIFT BOOK (1931) |
STEREOTYPE ORNAMENTS
SEARS' CATALOGUE 1825 |
From time to time, Claude Cox of Ipswich, that marvellous shop specialising in the arts of printing, would offer for sale a collection of individual leaves from key books. I assumed this was an ingenious means of capitalising on damaged volumes. It certainly gave me access to some fine examples of printing. Using a decent scanner, much more of the fabric and design of printing after 1500 became available in ways that were satusfying for study, and also avoided the buttock clenching terror of copyright law. Each leaf is a mute witness of what can happen to the printed page. In the details you will explore the finesse (and otherwise) of the way letterforms are inked into paper in the service of meaning; the ways that the letterforms are deployed across the surface of the paper with decoration, rules, empty space and playing to the printed image. Here you will explore the limits of the page, the observance of the edge of the paper, and the damage that can be done, from bruising to tears, splashes and abrasions. I have added indicative pages over the years, mainly from Facsimiles. Although I am urged to place a black sheet behind the printed page to avoid the unsightliness of the appearence of the reverse of the page, I enjoy the mute presence of the verso, a reversed echo, a ghostly presence under that which I am reading. Here too the human hand has intervened, in marginalia, accidental marks, and in the leaf of the 1549 Bible, an elaborate calculation of a forgotten task in ink down the margin. |