Printingprinting History history news 14 News 1 The Newsletter of the National Printing Heritage Trust, Printing Historical Society and Friends of St Bride Library Number 14 Spring 2007 Printing Historical Press at Coedpoeth, near Wrexham, Other St Bride events is another fine example of a printing Society AGM office that specialized in letterpress Friends AGM & Jan Tschichold. Tues- posters, which its proprietor is offering day 19 June. An exhibition of the work The 2007 Annual General Meeting of to the Wrexham County Borough of Tschichold and an illustrated talk by the Printing Historical Society will be Museum. Chris Burke, based on his forthcoming held on Tuesday 27 March 2007 at Friends of the NPHT can help to book. Exhibition preview from 5:30 5:00 p.m. at the St Bride Library. At stimulate the interest of museum p.m, talk at 7:00 p.m., admission £5 5:30 Tony Edwards, Professor of managers, curators and directors by (£3 concessions). The talk will be pre- Textual Studies at DeMonfort Univer- visiting those museums listed in the ceded by the AGM of the Friends of St sity, will speak on ‘Directions in the Trust’s Directory, and perhaps using Bride at 6:00 p.m. study of English incunables’. All are their influence to promote a revival of welcome to the lecture. interest in the history and technology 6,000,000 Impressions. Varied in of a basically simple process which was, form, the books produced by Tara Friends of the NPHT arguably, the most important inven- Publishing of Chenai, India, are united tion in the history of civilization. Any by the central vision of combining Derek Nuttall feed-back or comments about printing experimentation with communication, collections are always welcome. Please content and politics. Tara is especially When, in 1989, along with a number contact: Dr Derek Nuttall, Langdale, known for pioneering the book made ch4 of other enthusiasts, I initiated the Pulford Lane, Dodleston, Chester entirely by hand for the general reader. 9nn National Printing Heritage Trust, it was . Exhibition: Wednesday 9 May–Thurs- with the intention (or hope) of setting day 14 June. Lecture (by Gita Wolf and up a national museum of printing. This Rathna Ramanathan) and preview: was at a time when it was obvious that St Bride Conference Tuesday 8 May. traditional letterpress printing was soon to become defunct, but whilst Great British Design? there were still many influential people Other events in printing who were keen to ensure The Sixth Annual Friends of St Bride that the technology of this venerable Conference will be held at St Bride on The influence of the Venetian printing industry should not be forgotten. Thursday 31 May and Friday 1 June house of Aldus Manutius, a lecture by A recent visit I made to the new 2007. Uncovering the ‘great’ in British Dr Martin Davies. To be held at 7:00 Gutenberg Museum at Mainz showed design, a stellar cast of speakers will p.m. on Tuesday 3 April, at Bernard me what can be achieved. Although no open our eyes to some of the better- Quaritch Antiquarian Booksellers, 8 similar national museum of printing hidden secrets of graphic design and Lower John Street, Golden Square, has been established in Britain, and print. Speakers will include Suw Char- London w1f 9au. Dr Davies is former some of the nation’s collections have man (Open Rights Group), Susanna Head of Incunabula at the British been put into storage (or even disposed Edwards, Max Gadney (BBC), Ken Library. His lecture is one of the Globe of), a number ‘working museums’ – Garland, Kerr Noble, Morag Myers- Education Events, in the series Shake- such as Amberley, Norwich’s John cough (Studio Myerscough), Michael speare and Venice. Tickets cost £15.00 Jarrold Museum, Ironbridge Blists Hill, C. Place, Rick Poynor, Nick Robertson (£10.00 concessions, including Friends Beamish and Cockermouth – continue (Wordsalad) and Patrick Walker (Dust of Shakespeare’s Globe). Tickets to carry the torch. Collective). In addition, there will be the include a glass of wine and must be In 2007 there is still a handful of usual mix of graphic displays, specialist booked in advance from the Globe Box traditional letterpress printers earning booksellers, demonstrations, social Office. Telephone: 020 7902 1470. their crust, but week by week their events and an auction of collectable (or Fax: 020 7902 1475 (Monday to numbers are declining. Bill Sessions of disposable) books and objets d’art. Friday 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.). All York has written to inform me that one St Bride Institute, Bride Lane, Fleet mailed tickets are subject to a postal of Yorkshire’s last letterpress printers, Street, London ec4y 8eq. Admission: charge of £1.50. a Mr Ken McWhan of Leeds, who is £100 (£50 concessions) rising to £150 65, has now ceased trading. He is (£75) after 10 May. Contact the St Archival sources for the lives of printing anxious to see his complete workshop Bride Foundation on 020 7353 3331, workers in the 16th century: the case – which was established in the early [email protected]. of Spain, a lecture by Dr Clive Griffin 1930s – preserved in its entirety. For further details see the website at (of Trinity College, Oxford). To be Similarly, in North Wales, the Star www.stbride.org. held on Monday 14 May 2007 at 5:15 2 printing history news 14 p.m. at the Taylor Institution, Oxford. Terrace is no exception, but it is published in the journal Typography Held by the Oxford Bibliographical exceptional in the range and quality of Papers in 2005. Society. Members may bring guests. the items which have survived. They Humphrey Stone, son of the wood- include a set of curtains designed engraver Reynolds Stone, is a distin- The woman bookbinder of the William specially by Morris for his London guished typographical designer. He Morris circle, a lecture by Marianne drawing-room and a unique, hooked trained at the Oxford University Press, Tidcombe. To be held on Tuesday 15 Morris rug. Other textiles are more and spent a year sitting at the feet of May 2007 at 6:00 p.m. at the Garwood prosaic and include the Walker family’s Giovanni Mardersteig in Verona. He Lecture Theatre, South Wing, Univer- table and bathroom linen, much of worked at Chatto and Windus and sity College, Gower Street, London. which dates back to the mid-nineteenth Weidenfeld and Nicolson, before being The Bibliographical Society’s ‘Homee century and gives a rare view of the assistant designer under P. J. Conk- and Phiroze Randeria Lecture’. Mem- lives of those who occupied the house. wright at Princeton University Press. bers may bring guests. Monday 9 July. William Morris in Later he became art director for Hammersmith, led by Dr Aileen Reid, Stanford University Press, California, author and academic curator of the and the Compton Press, Wiltshire. Book Fair collection at 7 Hammersmith Terrace. Michael Harvey, whose career began Dr Reid will spend time looking closely in Ditchling learning to carve inscrip- The PBFA will hold a large fair at the at Morris and the part he played in the tions, has designed over fifteen hundred Novotel London West, 1 Shortlands, lives of his friends and colleagues in the lettered dust-jackets, taught in English Hammersmith w6 8dr, on Friday 8 Hammersmith area. Walker arrived in art colleges and in the USA, and been June (2:00–7:00 p.m.) and Saturday 9 the Terrace in 1879, just a year after on the faculties of seven international June (10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.). Formerly Morris moved into nearby Kelmscott calligraphic conferences. He has carved held at the Commonwealth Institute, House, and the two became firm many inscriptions, including those in this annual event is both an antiquar- friends. The study morning looks at the National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing ian/second-hand and a private press Morris’s final years at Hammersmith, in London, and has created prints, book fair, and will involve more than a at their friendship and the many inscriptions and sundials with Scottish hundred specialist booksellers and fine mementoes of it that survive in the poet Ian Hamilton Finlay. His six printers. Admission is free. house, including hitherto unseen books include Creative lettering today material from the Kelmscott Press. and he has designed typefaces for Emery Walker Trust Monotype, Adobe, Dutch Type Study Mornings Library and Fine Fonts (his partner- Pen to Printer ship with Andy Benedek). These study mornings will give partici- John Nash is a lettering craftsman pants a chance to explore a specific The Edward Johnston Foundation’s working with brush, pen and chisel. area of interest led by an expert in the Seventh Ditchling Annual International Born in the United States, he came to field. Numbers will be limited to eight Seminar will take place over the week- England in 1968 and, after working so that those attending will be able to end of 18–20 May 2007. The inter- briefly with Donald Jackson, studied study objects at close quarters on an national speaker is the distinguished with Ann Camp, Gerald Fleuss and interactive basis. The sessions will start American artist and designer Susan Gaynor Goffe at Digby Stuart College, at 10.00 a.m. and run for about two Skarsgard, known for her original fine Roehampton Institute. Since 1985 he hours. Coffee and refreshments will be art works, site-specific installation art, has been involved mainly with inscrip- provided. Tickets may be obtained graphic design and hand-lettering, and tional letter-carving, having worked from the Administrator on 020 8741 currently working as a Lead Product with Tom Perkins in England, Pieter 4104 at a cost of £30.00 per head.