 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Books Forthcoming
Wood engraving by Edwina Ellis
(from A Christmas Carol, 1984)
Bordering
on the Sublime
Ornamental Typography at the Curwen Press.
Autumn 2011
The Ingoldsby Legends: A Gallimaufry
by Richard Barham
with eight contemporary wood engravings by the Dalziel Brothers.
Summer 2012
Endgrain Editions 4
Simon Brett – An Engraver’s Progress
With a Catalogue raisonné of Exhibitions
& a Checklist of his Book Illustration.
Autumn 2013
Endgrain Editions 5
Gaylord Schanilec – Pictures and Stories
Colour engravings, the stories that made them, and the stories they made.
2013-14
|
Bordering on the Sublime
Ornamental Typography at the Curwen Press
AUTUMN 2011
WE ARE DELIGHTED to have acquired the Curwen Press archives of
Monotype ornaments & borders, comprising hundreds of pounds of
new flowers in case and in packets from the foundry, with scores of
borders composed and, once printed, tied up, wrapped, & stored for
future use. The Curwen Press was arguably the best trade letterpress
printing office in Great Britain for the better part of the 20th
century. Their book design and presswork were unexcelled. They
employed some of the finest British artists & illustrators of the day
– John Piper, Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious, & Claude Lovat Fraser,
to name a few – and their jobbing work set standards which still
hold today. Their clients included the Arts Council of Great Britain,
the British Transport Commission, and the Double Crown Club. A
significant element in this work was the use of ornaments & borders,
often printed in two or three colours. Their compositors showed an
endless facility and astonishing invention in creating them, & they
are exemplars of ornamental typography. Bordering
on the Sublime will examine this part of the Curwen Press legacy,
reprinting those original borders which remain standing, recomposing some
of those which were distributed, and showing examples of other decorative
elements such as spots and swelled rules which were intended to accompany
the borders. The text will review the press’s history, its
influence & importance, with special reference to its use of ornament.
There will be a discussion of the use of historical ornaments (and of
some modern creations) in the nearly a century since the Monotype
revival, notes on significant examples of their use by various presses
and designers, some reflections on the techniques & typographical
decisions required in their use, and a bibliography of books which
discuss and display printers’ flowers.
WE PLAN to issue the book in at least two states, with the A state including examples of working proofs from the Curwen Press. We anticipate publication in 2011.
RESERVATIONS are RECOMMENDED. Visit our Ordering page to order this title.