New HM Prospectus Full of Lies

A new four-page prospectus for books to be published by HM in 2012 is being mailed out over the next week. Sadly, close reading reveals at least one major untruth: the lead article claims copies of the new Types/Paper/Print specimen book will include "one duplicate leaf printed on handmade paper." The presumption was that there would be sufficient extras from the copies printed on handmade paper (for the 10 deluxe copies of the book, which include the text in full on three different papers: Guarro laid, handmade, and Arches Wove). But there weren't, and so the plan was abandoned. Meanwhile, David Clifford was busy at Black Stone Press printing the prospectus, which was already out of date. C'est la vie. There were some extras, so some copies may sneak out with the extra leaf: the rare "duplicate leaf" variant.

The prospectus also fails to report that the three copies of the HM Drop Box, featured on the last page, are in fact all sold. They were, however, sold to booksellers, so they're not entirely out of play.

A PDF version of the prospectus is available from the home page of the HM site.

Types/Paper/Print: Cased Close

Getting into the thick of sewing copies of Types/Paper/Print and making the cases.

The sections were trimmed to 8 x 12 inches before sewing. The nipping presses become the bottleneck, and the solution is to complete each copy from sewing through casing in, rather than working through each stage of the process for the entire edition. The book is sewn and the spine pasted up; while it sets, the case is made. Then the book gets stuffed in the case, nipped and pressed while the next copy is prepared. After 30 minutes (the time it takes to sew a copy and make the case) between boards in the nipping press, the book is added to a small stack in a second press and left for about 24 hours. Boring, repetitive work. Even worse than printing. But at least something different for a while.

The endpapers are, alas, tipped on, a tactic we have always dismissed as something akin to a clip-on tie. But in this instance, for this book, it made sense, in part because it allowed us to make the slight adjustment in the press for the papers to be used in Claudia's deluxe copies (which most definitely will not be tipped on; hence the need for an increase to the space between what will be the doublure and the fly). For the front of the book we printed 48-pt Perpetua:

For the back, 60-pt De Roos semi-bold:

The cases are being covered in a variety of Payhembury hand-marbled papers. Labels printed in gold are set on to the spine and front board, as shown above.

Getting into the binding of Types/Paper/Print has reminded us of the book that was, if not exactly a model, at least an inspiration. It's a specimen book issued by the Alcuin Press in 1928, beautifully printed in various types on Batchelor's Kelmscott paper.

The book opens with a page set in 72-pt Cloister,

followed by a spread set in 36-pt, and then settles into a variety of faces in book sizes.

The text is an interesting precis of the fine press movement and the history of printing, concluding with a brief summary of the press's abilities in, and philosophy toward binding. In this instance, an elegant quarter-cloth case made with thin board.

Moebius' Trip

A celebration for the life & work of Jean Giraud, who died last weekend, was held in his home town of Paris last night. A very cool man. Check out Graphitti Designs' translated versions of L'Incal, and then watch The Fifth Element. Duster fans should look up his Lt Blueberry series.

Mr Milroy's Gate to a Wonder World

That's the title that Shinsuke Minegishi gave to the new wood engraving he made as a frontis for Types/Paper/Print. We'd suggested something that riffed on the form of a handpress, and he was particularly taken with the honeycomb pattern on the Ostrander Seymour's platen. Voila. Very cool. And a teasing precis to the retrospective of his printmaking that HM will be publishing.

The block (image approx. 2 x 4 inches) was printed by Shin on gampi. It will be mounted on a printed sheet, bracketed between the title and his name, facing the book's title page. Shin will sign below the print in each of the  ten deluxe copies.

Printing of the text pages was completed last weekend, and copies have been collated. We may have enough extras printed on the Arches and handmade to sneak a few into some of the regular edition (i.e. replacing the Guarro sheets).

Claudia Cohen will be binding the deluxe copies in April, so those copies should be shipping in early May. The regular copies will start coming out of the HM studio by the end of March. Meanwhile, a four-page prospectus of upcoming projects (including T/P/P) was being printed this week by David Clifford at Black Stone Press. Copies will be included with orders for the new book, and there will also be a general mailing.

Handpress Library #6: Small Press

The most recent acquisition for HM's library of books about handpress printing: The Hand-Press, a miniature issued by the Magpie Press for the Second International Antiquarian Book Fair (Los Angeles, 1967).

The short text covers the usual ground about craftsmanship in the age of mechanization. Unfortunately, it also perpetuates the misconception that using a handpress is an excuse for poor printing, rather than a method for achieving excellence. The two french-fold sheets were printed four-up, dry, with too little impression and no evidence of any makeready. Nonetheless, here it is.

If miniature it must be, better to look for Ward Ritchie's The Hand Press, well printed in the Fleece Press's usual manner, and including wood engravings by Anthony Christmas. The brief text covers Ritchie's introduction to printing during a short apprenticeship in France.

There's also The Unfinished Psalter, Monseigneur Francis Weber's brief account of William Everson's aborted attempt to print the Roman psalter. This little book was printed by Roger Pennels in 1986. Weber was the Archivist of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It reminds us that some months ago we promised a post about Everson's Psalter. The drafting of that was begun, but it is not a book that is quickly or casually written about, and so work proceeds slowly. But it will appear...

Occupied Demonstration

Occupied By Colour is in the final stretch: after spending the past four months working on the printed sheets, Barbara recently them to Claudia, who has further work to do on some of them. While Barbara was coloring Claudia was planning the boxes and bindings, and getting materials ready. Before taking the sheets away, Barbara took a few snaps of the completed pages & sent them along with some notes....

Color Etymologist: The Language of Color: The meanings of our present-day words for various colors - from the everyday red, green or blue, to the less frequently heard scarlet, cerulean or vermilion - have their roots in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Sanskrit or Old German. This page, created with watercolor washes, shows the actual color of these words and traces their derivations.

Spectrum: Newton's "Crucial Experiment," shown at the top of this page, was instrumental in showing how light consists of component colors, which we now call the "spectrum."  The spectrum analysis of various sources, including the sun, nitric peroxide and rubidium. This page was printed twice, once for the fine lines and once for the black bars. It was then painted in washes of water colors.

Illumination: A facsimile of an illuminated border by Pseudo-Jacquemart de Hesdin, from Petites Heures, c. 1385-90. The mediaeval book illuminator's color palette consisted of a limited number of colours, including azurite, orpiment, minium and lapis lazuli. For this image, we prepared these traditional colors by grinding the pigments and adding gum arabic as a binder.

Bauer Shade Card: A facsimile of a color guide created by 18th-century botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer. Bauer travelled to both the Mediterranean and Australia in search of botanical specimens. Because of the difficulties of painting in the field, he devised a "shade card" to keep track of the colors of the plants he drew. Each color area on a sketch was numbered with the appropriate color on the card. Our facsimile is based on that found in Madrid's Archivo del Real Jardin Botánico and has been painted with watercolors. Bauer's original was probably painted with gouache.

The Long Run #5: Chill

Don't know what all the drama was about. Everything got done. Sheets all pressing between boards. But a new record for the studio: one sheet kept damp & printed upon over four consecutive days, more than 500 impressions. Just three more sheets to finish the book, then the two endsheets; on schedule to wrap things up within the next two weeks.