New work 2021
15 November 2021
Bewick’s Matchem by Jenny Uglow / Nigel Tattersfield
The Reading Room Press
On p.57 of Nature’s Engraver Jenny Uglow describes Thomas Bewick at the age of fifteen, after the excitement of a day at the races, engraving on a copper medallion an image of the famous racehorse Matchem. Bewick’s Matchem repeats this account together with a succinct essay by Nigel Tattersfield about both Bewick’s apprenticeship engraving and the horse itself. Interspersed are photographs of both side of this medallion, for many years obscured from public scrutiny.
120 copies set in Caslon, bound in quarter-cloth and marbled papers. Price: £48 plus P&P
4 August 2021
A hymn by J. A. Rothe with its English translation by John Wesley
The Jericho Press
The hymn is ‘Ich habe nun den Grund gefunden’ dating from 1727 but still sung in Germany and in Wesley’s translation by English Methodists. The type is 20-point ‘Dürer fraktur’, perhaps Monotype’s most elegant fraktur. It was copied and I think slightly modified by Paul Duensing, whose matrices were cast from by some U.S. typecasters in the 1980s and 90s. The English type is Monotype Joanna.
4 August 2021
The opening of his homily on 'My Father who sent me is greater than I' by Amphilochius of Iconium
The Jericho Press
This Syriac text fills a gap in the published homily of Amphilochius (a 4th-century church father). The manuscript belonged to the ‘Sisters of Sinai’, Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson, and was tucked away in the archives of Westminster College, Cambridge . The ornaments (hand-coloured) reproduce those in the manuscript. The Syriac type dates from 1848. I bought it from the Oxford University Press in 1974 and have used it a few times since then. The English type is Monotype Walbaum.
11 February 2021
Delicate Words and Lilac Threads by Mary Dickinson
Muttons & Nuts
Letterpress printed hand-bound book of poetry with artwork printed digitally on beautiful 190gsm Bockingford inkjet paper. The cover cloth has been screen printed by Miscprintco in three colours with illustrations by Christine and Pheobe Law. The book is an edition of twenty-five copies.
The book is a celebration of some of Mary Dickinson’s poetry and art that has been collated by her family. Writing and art was her way of dealing with emotions and episodes in her life and her unique way of seeing the world, expressing grief, love and illness, through nature, events and landscape.
Thank you to the family of Mary Dickinson for commissioning me to print this book for them and to Miscprintco for screen printing the book cloth.
11 February 2021
Thirty More Years ~ Bookplates 1990-2020 by Simon Brett
The Reading Room Press
The two previous books about Simon’s ex libris [Klaus Rodel, Frederckshavn 1982 and Fleece Press 1989] were by the late Brian North Lee, that doyen of the genre. Here the text is by the artist himself. 190 copies set in Perpetua, printed with an Albion on Zerkall paper. Case-bound in quarter-cloth. Of the sixty-eight plates commissioned since 1990, thirty-four are reproduced, all but two from the wood. In addition, the first 100 copies ordered will have an additional bookplate tipped in, the 150th, printed and signed by the artist.
Price: £75 + P. & P.
