Printingprinting History history news 15 News 1 The Newsletter of the National Heritage Trust, Printing Historical Society and Friends of St Bride Library Number 15  Summer 2007

New prize for accounts exploring how coming to this downland Extreme : preserving of working in printing village transformed Gill’s life and work. a in Ethiopia by Lester It will examine Gill’s importance to Capon, Tuesday 2 October. the modern art movement in the early The Printing Historical Society is very Laser cutting and letterpress by twentieth century and show how his pleased to announce a new annual Danny Flynn, Tuesday 6 November. philosophy and work-practices lived prize, called ‘In the Print: The Donald Danny will talk about the he on in Ditchling through Joseph Cribb Milham Award’. The prizes will be has made with artist and - (1892–1967), his first apprentice, who awarded for the most useful personal, binder Eri Funazaki, the use of arrived with him in 1907. written accounts of working in the laser-cutting in both The exhibition includes examples twentieth-century British printing traditional and of Gill’s sculpture, -, industry. The award is named after in commercial work for film and drawings, books, correspondence and Donald Milham, a letterpress advertising. archive material seen alongside works minder during his career, and has of his associates at Ditchling, many by Books and stuff: the quiddity of generously been set up by his son and Joseph Cribb. Material is drawn both artists’ books by Carolyn Trant another benefactor. Submissions will from Ditchling Museum’s collection of the Parvenu Press, Tuesday 4 go into the Milham Archive at the St and from private collections with many December. Artist Carolyn Trant Bride Library for study by historians pieces never before exhibited. There talks about her books and making in the future. Entries must reach the will be a display of material from the ideas work in organic materials. She Award co-ordinator by 5 November Ditchling Museum’s recently acquired will try to bring some real ‘stuff’ 2007. For further information and Evan Gill Collection. Collated by his with her. entry details, send a stamped younger brother over his lifetime, this addressed to ‘In the Print’, substantial collection contains Eric Designer Bookbinders would welcome PO Box 4119, Wells ba5 2uf, or Gill’s childhood drawings, corres- suggestions for future lectures. Further e-mail [email protected]. pondence, photographs and books. details may be obtained from Rachel Many of these were printed by the St Ward-Sale or Julia Dummett on EVENTS Dominic’s Press on the Stanhope Press 01273 486718 or by e-mail at which is now on permanent display in [email protected]. Non-Latin design. Conference, the Museum and used for workshops Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 Sep- and practical printing (see PHN 10). tember 2007. St Bride Library and This exhibition is curated for the the Department of and Museum by Ruth Cribb, Joseph’s Journal of the Printing Graphic , University of Cribb’s great-granddaughter, and Historical Society Reading, are collaborating on a two- Assistant Curator, Sculpture Depart- day conference on non- typeface ment, at the Victoria and Albert John Trevitt has succeeded Peggy design. The conference will comprise a Museum. The exhibition is accom- Smith as editor of the PHS Journal, day of talks at St Bride Library and a panied by educational events for and hopes to publish number 11 by day of hands-on sessions at the Depart- adults, children and families. Further the end of 2007. He would be delighted ment of Typography in Reading. Reg- details and images may be obtained to receive proposals for articles of istration fees are £60 for the Tuesday from Hilary Williams or Janet Cragg ‘whatever length’ on the world-wide only, and £120 for both days; student on 01273 844744, or by e-mail on and its allied trades. fees are £40 and £80 respectively. For [email protected]. He may be contacted at Rose Cottage, further details see the St Bride website Church Road, Weobley, Hereford hr4 at www.stbride.org. Designer Bookbinders 8sd, telephone 01544 318388, e-mail [email protected]. Eric Gill and Ditchling: the workshop Lecture Series John Trevitt is a book designer and tradition. Exhibition at Ditchling editor, now freelance after years at Museum, 9 June–7 October 2007. It is The following lectures will be held Cambridge University Press and Col- 100 years since Eric Gill (1882–1940), at the Art Workers Guild, 6 Queen lins, an occasional book reviewer and letter-cutter, wood-engraver, sculptor Square, wc1 at 6:30 p.m. dealer in old books. Catherine Arm- and type-designer moved to Ditchling Admission is £2.50 for students, strong ([email protected]) in Sussex. It was here that he spent £5.00 for members and £7.00 for continues as reviews editor, and Peggy his most creative years and this exhib- non-members. Nearest tube stations Smith remains Chairman of the Print- ition will celebrate this centenary by are Holborn and Russell Square. ing Historical Society. 2 printing history news 15

PHS Grants for 2007 The Ratcliff machine in the Museum lithographic origination on stone and came from the Curwen Studio and plate to the techniques of colour cor- The Printing Historical Society is hence was used for many years for rection for printing, which are today pleased to announce the following much more peaceful purposes – the performed by the computer. Cecil Bye grants, made to individuals in support work of artists. was also able to discuss the techniques of their research: used in map-making at the time of the Stanley Jones, Curwen Studio Director Great War which are still familiar to § Paul Dijstelberge, Leiden, The writes: him. Netherlands: Digital photographs of Dutch type, 1540–1700 The Curwen Studio was founded in Thanks were expressed to the many § Rebecca Herman, Leeds: George 1958 to perpetuate the idea of colla- friendly people who run the Printing Baxter Exhibition at the Leeds City borative with artists and Museum and who helped make the Art Gallery printers in the creation of original visit so worthwhile. limited prints made by litho- § Edward Law, Bennettsbridge, graphy. As a subsidiary of the former Ireland: The nineteenth-century Curwen Press, it has specialised in this process of anastatic printing Documenting the history area and now has a worldwide reputa- § Ann Pillar, Wonersh, near tion for the quality of its hand-drawn of the printing trade Guildford: Publicity materials of . Using traditional stone, Michael Twyman grained zinc and aluminium it also uses § David Shields, Austin, Texas, modern where appro- Readers might like to know about a USA: The visual origins of the priate for contemporary artists. The clutch of related projects that have to ‘grotesque Italian’ display typeface company is situated at Chilford Hall in do with the history of the printing Linton near Cambridge, moving there, trade, three of which are based at the § Karen Weaver, Pittsburgh, in 1989, from London. Department of Typography and Pennsylvania, USA: Anne Ward, Largely for reasons of space and Graphic Communication at the Uni- eighteenth-century in York preservation, it was decided to present versity of Reading. Dr Rob Banham is the Ratcliff flat-bed offset machine to responsible for a one-year project Map printing by the John Jarrold Printing Museum at (funded by the Arts and Humanities Norwich. It had begun its life at the Research Council) to review and lithography Curwen Press in 1927, and joined the representations of printing studio (with its printers) in Tottenham and in films and videos. He In February 2007 a visit to the John Court Road about 1965, where it would welcome input from others, par- Jarrold Printing Museum in Norwich formed the focus of the company’s ticularly about little known examples or was arranged by Stanley Jones of the edition-printing capacity for artists, episodes ([email protected], Curwen Press. It brought together until the move to Chilford Hall. Con- or 0118 378 6399). With Bernard Stanley Jones, Howard Anderson and tact is kept between us and the John Seward he is also updating NPHT’s Cecil Bye to discuss the procedures of Jarrold Printing Museum because of Register of printing equipment (orig- map printing by lithography during our shared interest in fine printing. inally compiled by Desmond Field) the Great War. Howard Anderson of Cecil Bye, seen in the photograph with a view to making it available on the Western Front Association writes: (below) with Stanley Jones, beside the the web. These two projects tie in well Ratcliff press, started work over eighty with an ongoing oral history project, The visit to the John Jarrold Printing years ago as an apprentice lithographer, focusing on the printing and allied Museum was arranged as part of a progressing through the process of trades, which was launched by John project on Great War maps run by volunteers of the Western Front Association. During the Great War, something like thirty-two million maps were printed by the British, many in Southampton at the Ordnance Survey. They used lithographic presses very similar to the Ratcliff machine at Jarrold’s Museum, pulling maps off stone and zinc. Some printing went on in France and Belgium behind the lines but not on such large . Some of the maps that still exist are at the Imperial War Museum in London. These are being scanned to make them available on DVD. A website at www.anderh.com/wfa shows some examples. It was most interesting to see, if not an actual Ordnance Survey machine, at least one of the same type and size, and to be able to speak to those who ran it. Stanley Jones and Cecil Bye with the Ratcliff Press printing history news 15 3

Handford and Peter White. It is now that not only the past but the future of under the direction of Martin Andrews printing is celebrated. with funding from CETL (the Centre For further information about Scot- for Excellence in Teaching and Learn- tish printing history you can consult ing). In addition, Tony Smith is under- www.scottishprintarchive.org, and for taking a review of printing history details of the events planned for 2008 websites on behalf of NPHT so that see www.500yearsofprinting.org. good practice in this field can be identi- fied and passed on to others. Clearly Contacts: Brian Hilyard (Head of Rare this project relates to the Register of Books, National Library of Scotland), printing equipment, but it is hoped that [email protected]; Patrick Mark (Chair all four projects will feed off one another of Scottish Printing Archival Trust), and to a greater awareness of what [email protected]. is available to support those interested in printing history. LOUTH MUSEUM PRINTING SHOP device of Andrew Myllar, David N. Robinson, o.b.e. Scotland’s first printer (reduced) There have been printers recorded in Louth from the eighteenth century, Scottish printing mainly producing handbills and broadsheets, and then books and celebrates 500 years pamphlets into the nineteenth century. of progress in 2008 We have examples in Louth Museum archives, along with a large quantity of In September 1507, a patent was grant- sale posters donated by a local firm of ed to ‘Androw Myllar’ and ‘Walter estate agents. The Louth & North Chepman’ by King James IV, - Lincolnshire advertiser was printed in ising them to set up a in the town (a former curator of the Edinburgh. The earliest known dated Museum was editor) and a founder of output from their press (The complaint the Louth Naturalists’, Antiquarian of the black knight) is dated 4 April and Literary Society, Richard Gould- 1508. ing, was a printer and publisher of This is somewhat later than William pamphlets, booklets and an annual Caxton’s establishment in England, Almanack until the 1940s. and it is noteworthy that the expertise In the early 1990s the remaining COLUMBIAN for the Scottish press came not from printing firm in the town, Allinson England but France. Andrew Myllar – and Wilcox (now Allinson Print and PRESS IN IRAN of whom sadly little is known – printed Supplies), was clearing out letterpress John Handford in Rouen prior to setting up in Edin- equipment and gave us a working burgh and it is likely that he brought Arab press and quantities of During a recent holiday in Iran, I visited tradesmen and equipment from France. equipment including cabinets, a stone, the seventeenth-century All Saviour’s Celebrations of the quincentenary -rollers, wood and type and Cathedral, also known as the Vank are being coordinated by the National printing blocks. By that time the single Church, in Esfahan. In the cathedral’s Library of Scotland, the Scottish Print- gallery Museum, built in 1910, was museum, I was surprised to see, in ing Archival Trust and the Scottish already overfull, and plans were drawn apparently excellent condition, a British- Print Employers Federation. The aim up for an extension. The Museum made (above), which, is to make the celebrations as broad closed for three years to build two new I was told by curator Ms Rima Khach- as possible, and 2008 has been desig- galleries, a store and classroom/library, ikian, had been in the city since 1844 nated ‘Scottish Year of the Printed and to refit throughout. The £660,000 and was only the third printing press to Word’ by the Scottish Executive. A very scheme was funded by the Heritage reach those parts. The manufacturer’s wide range of events is planned, right Lottery Fund, national and regional plate states: ‘Columbian Press | No 965 across Scotland, involving libraries, sources, local authorities, charitable | Clymer’s Patent | Clymer & Dixon | universities, museums, art colleges and foundations and the Society’s own Manufacturers | 10 Finsbury Street many other interested organisations. A fundraising, and the Museum reopened London | 1841’. key role is being played by the National in March 2006. The Cathedral has been at the centre Library which will have a major The scheme gave the opportunity to of the Armenian Christian community exhibition in summer 2008 and also an create a small printing shop display in in Esfahan for four hundred years, and extensive web feature illustrating how a corner of the original gallery, lining it the press has no doubt helped to pre- printing spread to different places in with wood panelling made from the serve the Armenian traditions against Scotland, with examples of the first old floorboards, to show the printing the backdrop of religious and political printed items. The Scottish Printing machinery, cabinets of type, blocks and change. Industry will also be involved, ensuring plates together with posters and other 4 printing history news 15

printed ephemera. Occasional Higher Education. Complete, fair and print days are held to demonstrate condition. Approximate dimensions how letterpress printing was done, with 1200 (l) × 1000 (w) × 1585 (h) mm. children able to use the wood type. The (Museum ref DBYMU 1985-9/1). printing shop display has been co- 3. Miehle No. 6 two revolution press, sponsored by the National Printing manufactured by Linotype and Mach- Heritage Trust with a grant of £500, inery Co. Ltd, Altrincham. Last used at for which the Society is very grateful. Derby College of Higher Education. Dismantled, complete(?). Approximate dimensions 2000 (l) × 1500 (w) mm. OBITUARY (Museum ref DBYMU 1985-9/2). Tom Colverson (8 October 4. No. 794, serial number 19665, manufactured at 1915–6 April 2007) Altrincham, 1960s. Castings by Croft Simon Colverson Engineering, Bradford. Complete, fair condition. Last used by Bemrose Tom was born in Liss, Hampshire, the Corporation, Derby, 1990s. Weighs middle son of the village butcher. He around a tonne. Dimensions 1620 (l) × was educated at Churcher’s College, 1700 (w) × 2300 (h) mm. (Museum ref Petersfield, and following a couple of Tom Colverson (painting by David DBYMU 1996-162/1). years working at a Knightsbridge art gallery, he joined Phoenix, a subsidiary Phipps) 5. ‘Simplissimus’ mounted press, of J. M. Dent, at the end of 1935. In manufactured by BM Co. Complete, 1937 Dent founded the first general fair condition. Dimensions 400 (l) × book club, Readers Union, and Tom Presses Available 400 (w) × 500 (h) mm. (No Museum became its production manager. On ref. number). The following presses are available for the outbreak of war, when he regis- disposal from Derby Museum col- Those interested should contact Roger tered as a conscientious objector, he lections. We would prefer these items Shelley, Principal Keeper of the Silk moved to Dent’s factory in Letchworth, to go to a museum or other body Mill, Derby Museums and Art Gallery, Herts. Later in the war he worked at de1 1bs accredited by the Museums Libraries The Strand, Derby , on 01332 the firm’s London in Bedford and Archives Council (MLAC). In the 255308, or ring the general office on Street. In 1949, Tom was memorably event of no interest from such bodies 01332 716669, or send an a-mail to sacked in a taxi in Russell Square for we will consider offers to re-house [email protected]. protesting a colleague’s incompetence from other groups and individuals: and at the end of that year he joined the Architectural Press. While there he 1. Lithographic transfer press, ca. USEFUL CONTACTS witnessed the building of the South 1880. Manufactured by Grieg and Bank site for the Festival of Britain. Company, Edinburgh. Assumed National Printing Heritage Trust After ten years, he had a brief spell at complete, with rollers and litho stones, www.npht.org.uk W. H. Smith’s advertising agency but in dismantled state. Approximate Chair: Michael Twyman before moving to Oxford University dimensions 1800 (l) × 1500 (w) × [email protected] 1300 (h) mm. From A. J. Bott Ltd, Press’s Mayfair in 1961. The Printing Historical Society Lithographers, Spa Lane, Derby high of Tom’s time at OU P was www.printinghistoricalsociety.org.uk a nine-month spell at the company’s (Museum ref DBYMU 1981-46). Chair: Peggy Smith branch in Ibadan, Nigeria, at the height [email protected] of the civil war in 1967. Returning home, he felt unsettled and, through Friends of St Bride Library the recommendation of John Randle www.stbride.org (now proprietor of the Whittington Chair: Rob Banham [email protected] Press), he began teaching part-time classes at the then London College of St Bride Library, Bride Lane, Printing. This paved the way, in 1970, Fleet Street, London ec4y 8ee for his appointment as senior lecturer www.stbride.org on the course at Oxford Librarian: Nigel Roche Polytechnic, now Oxford Brookes. [email protected] Here he put his lifetime’s experience to good use, teaching book production to Printing History News Editor: Paul W. Nash generations of students, many of whom 8 Fairfield Drive, Witney, Oxfordshire have made careers in the industry. Tom ox28 5lb retired in 1981 and for many years [email protected] enjoyed an active life in Oxford despite the loss of a leg in 1993. In March 2. Bremner treadle platen press, Published by the NPHT, PHS and the 2006 he moved to a care home near his manufactured by Harrild and Sons Friends of St Bride Library, June 2007. family in Cambridge, where he died Ltd, Fleet Works, London (pictured Printed by W. H. Evans and Sons Ltd, peacefully on Good Friday 2007. above). Last used at Derby College of Chester.

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