Angel Close to Getting Its Wings

Silence a result of immersion in Angel. The BG Bodleian is glorious. Will post about how we're damping it soon, for those interested. Printed the colophons last week, press-lettered in 30-pt Monument, printed in silver. They go off to Harold for signing this week, while the last few sheets of the book are printed. Might all come together in time to have a copy ready to show off at the Seattle Book Fair. After printing, we need to make the paste paper wraps, which will reproduce one of Harold's arabesque drawings...

Heavweight Type Punch

Was in a metal shop today, for reasons to be discussed next week. Saw this in a corner: the world's biggest tape label maker? It punches capitals on a 2-inch-wide strip of steel ribbon (spool's at the top of the wheel; reflection in mirror seen behind; copper tube is adjacent "art").

Check out the wheel's options for fine setting (SPACE, FINISH, START) and glyphs (– or &, your choice).

Senior member of the HM board denied an initial request to acquire the item. We'll see. The thing would pay for itself in no time at all...

Two New Books from HM

Two new books nearing the press...

First out will be a new collection of 12 poems by Harold Budd, titled Angel. The book will be printed on sheets of Barcham Green's Bodleian paper (80 g, white laid), of which we have just enough for an edition of 26 lettered copies (plus a few H.C.) The text will be set in 18-pt Perpetua italic (the same font we used for Iskandariya) with our newly acquired Monument for titles. It will be a single signature (28 pp, 7 x 10 inches) – the thinness of the paper avoiding any awkward bulking – sewn into a paste paper wrap, with a printed tissue jacket. Issued in a slipcase. Some portion of the edition will be offered for sale (price TBA). To be issued before the end of the year.

Angel was somewhat unplanned for in HM's schedule. The poems were initially considered for inclusion in what will now be our subsequent publication (title as yet undecided), a typographic frolic that will show off the metal types held at HM. The idea was sparked with the arrival of some new (to us) types this past summer, which led to a re-organization – and rediscovery – of all the metal type at the studio. As a showcase for our metal types, it will be something of a companion to Types/Paper/Print, and also underscore some of the challenges raised in that book around using metal types. Where Types/Paper/Print was purely focused in the types used for setting blocks of texts, the new book will instead be using the fonts on hand to create patterns, borders and any other designs that occur, incorporating a brief quote related in some manner to the face and/or its designer. Another difference between Types/Paper/Print (and most every previous HM title) and the new book will be an abundance of color on each page. A preliminary sketch for the Perpetua page is shown below.

The primary faces showcased (one per page, rectos only) will, in alphabetical order, be:  American Uncial, Bembo, Centaur, Goudy (combining Old Style, Bold, and Bible!), Hannibal (with Duensing), Monument, Morris Black Face, Optima, Perpetua, Rubens, Unciala, and Verona (a.k.a. Bologna). Supplemental faces that may be sprinkled around include Columbus, Garamont, Shadow, Huxley Vertical, Lombardic, Reiner Script, and de Roos. 

In addition to being a collection of types, the book will contain a unique collection of papers: so far we've assembled sufficient quantities of Van Gelder laid, two different laid sheets from Barcham Green, a W.A. Sanders cream laid from the 1950s, two different papers made by Reg Lissel, and kitikata. 

The book (40 pp, 7 x 10 inches) will be uniformly cased in (various) marbled papers over thin boards, like the regular edition copies of Types/Paper/Print. The edition will be 26 press-lettered copies. Price TBA. Publication is planned for early spring 2013, with a copy being displayed at the Codex Book Fair in February.

Dampening Handmade Paper! Above the Fold

Recently received the latest issue of the Ottawa Press Gang's Letterpress Gazette, courtesy of Richard Coxford at the Bytown Bookshop. The Gazette is "a collaborative effort of the Ottawa Press Gang published for its members...published quarterly, using hand-set lead type printed on a manual printing press." Number 11 (July, 2012) was set & printed at OPG member Weathervane Press. Fantastic, and a steal at $10. Articles on design and layout, Clifford Burke's method for printing damp, and an editorial on printing (i.e. text) as art by Hugh Walter Barclay (Thee Hellbox Press). Our only grumble is that, after safely transporting it across the country, Canada Post mangled the broadsheet stuffing it into the mailbox. The OPG has been active for a number of years, and seems to be an enviable community of like-minded and supportive individuals. 

Our posts have become sluggish, but only because we're deep into the details of our next book. Details remain pending...

Mystery Blocks

A couple more of the blocks proofed last week. The ones shown here all are about 2 x 3 inches.

This wood engraving was the most interesting. No idea who the artist was. Doesn't look like a Kuthan.

This was the oddest in terms of subject matter for a wood engraving:

This grasshopper, and the three borders all defintely are Kuthans. The grasshopper, being a linocut, was not in good shape, with a few dings & divots, so we only pulled a few proofs of that one.

A few small engraved borders. The one on top wasn't cleared out much in the middle, and even with a fair bit of makeready it wanted to print.

Another engraving. No idea who Newman was; possibly a binder, with that needle in hand?A surgeon? A despised letter carrier?

To end, this copper photo-engraving (approx. 4 x 6") of a drawing by David Greer. Possibly used on the cover of a B.C. Library Quarterly, late 1950s or early '60s, when Bob Reid was the designer.

Half Truths

The previous post, making dismissive noises against claims of another book's priority in the history of printing in British Columbia over Alfred Waddington's (him up above), sparked a rebuke from another of HM's friends & mentors, antiquarian bookseller Steve Lunsford. He writes:

"Cameron's Rules of Practice is a proper book, and was printed well before Fraser Mines Vindicated.  It is an attractive folio, well printed by the Victoria Gazette. It can't be dismissed as some legislative rules.This is not a caveat or quibble. This is the truth. I have NO idea why the Fraser Mines myth survives - except only that Waddington really WANTED his pamphlet to be first, claimed it to be - then had to take it back in an erratum which acknowledges Cameron's precedence. He was pissed off, apparently, especially since Cameron was not widely liked (though neither was Waddington). And Fraser Mines is poorly printed on crap paper.

"Truth is truth. Tell it. No need to waffle on this one. People have been wrong for a long time; that doesn't make them right.

"So take it back."

Steve's been digging into this stuff for a few decades, so we'll take it back and not feed the mythology. But his comment about crap paper pertains to that original 1858 edition, not Bob's, which was printed on Hurlbut Cortlea antique paper.

A related mystery is how the topic of early printing in B.C. ever attracted Douglas McMurtrie's attention. We should print up a little correction to be inserted in copies of his little 1931 pamphlet on the topic.

David Clifford, whose prowess printing halftones was mentioned in the previous post, called to rubbish our efforts & tell us it's a waste of time and ink to print them on anything but coated stock. He's going to pull some proofs of the Albion block and show us how it's supposed to look. Stay tooned.

Halftone Up

Along with the Czech types previously discussed here, a few blocks also arrived at the studio. Three wood engravings; one wood cut; and three small, engraved borders; and a larger copper halftone of a handpress. All had previously, in one way or another, been associated with Robert Reid in the 1950s and '60s, and it was immediately obvious that at least one of the engravings was by his frequent collaborator George Kuthan, and probably the three borders as well.More about those in a day or two...
 
It being one of the hottest weeks of our summer, we decided now would be a good time to seal off the studio and pull some proofs. The surprise came with the first impression of the halftone: it wasn't a good impression, and some unremovable crud had grown on the plate, but clearly legible along the top of the press's staple were the words "First printing press in BC brought by Bishop Demers". That rang loud bells.

Pulling down a copy of Robert's first book, The Fraser Mines Vindicated (1949), and looking toward the back, there was the press. He'd included a photo of it in the book because it was the press upon which Fraser Mines (the first book* printed in B.C., in 1858) had been printed. And locked into the HM Washington was the same halftone he'd used 60+ years ago! (Only now it was actually being printed with a handpress; Bob used a treadle-powered C&P back then.)

  

The photo in Bob's book was gave us a clear idea of what to shoot for, so we spent a few hours building up the darks and tearing away the lights in the makeready (the first proof is shown above left; the last at right). HM's BFF David Clifford loves to talk about his time as a journeyman printer in France in the 1960s - "bloody great four-color forms they were, advertisements with loads of halftones that had to be made just right" - and the time and care it took getting the images to print properly. Yack yack yack. Printing this little halftone on our carefully dampened paper equals all of that. And all of the lost detail is due to the block's age. No doubt about it.

* Yes yes, it has come to light that Fraser Mines' pioneering claim is not strictly accurate: there was a book of legislative rules issued a few weeks earlier, but as Bob would say, it wasn't a proper book: Fraser Mines was.