New wood letters from Nick Summers

here's a nice clutch of ampersands made for me by Nick Summers at Sylvan Type Works in New South Wales - after I re-cover the tympan on the Albion I'll ink them up & print them, and post the result here - the design is Umbra, designed for Ludlow by R H Middleton in 1935 - 

Gill Sans Shadow 338

Electio has just acquired a font of 72pt Gill Sans Shadow 338 from The Printing Museum in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. They can produce a number of types and those interested should contact them for their list. They were kind enough to pull a proof for me and here it is - 

BUT, when the type arrived, it did so in a good, strong, wrap of card with a bit of printing on it which, amazingly, I didn't look at until the next day. It turns out to have been a nice piece of old Linotype packaging, and I confess I'm tempted to rename my press because of it - 

Vale Steve Pratt

looking this morning at Milroy Rollins's blog (Heavenly Monkey) I'm distressed to find that the maker of my Albion press (and one of Milroy's), has died of cancer. Go to Milroy's blog to see more of Steve's history - here's a photo of Steve Pratt and one of his Albions - I have, I have to say, taken this direct from Milroy's blog - 

each of the Pratt-Albions (as they are sometimes called) are dated and numbered - mine is number 11, dated 2001 - and the last information I have about the most recent one is number 18 - tho, if there are any later ones, I'd very much appreciate knowing - what I do know is that a small gathering of Pratt-Albion owners will be at CODEX 2013 in February -
here's mine (even tho I have posted this before - 

Steve Pratt's Albions are reproduced from a small (foolscap folio) Albion made by D & J Grieg, Edinburgh (I think in the 1860s - anyone have better information?) once owned by the late great printer Lewis Allen at his (with his wife Dorothy) Allen Press in California - 
at Allen's death, his printery was gifted to the University of Utah, and somehow a decision was made to strip the little Albion down and make reproductions - for me, owning this press is a special story - in the mid-1970s I discovered Lewis Allen's Printing with the handpress (Van Nostrand Reinhold 1969) and this book became, and was so for many years, my close-read handbook on printing, along with Clifford Burke's Printing poetry -  later, in 1982, in Fine Print Vol VIII, No. 1, Lewis Allen reviewed I book I had printed, of short aphorisms on the creative process plus a number of drawings by designer-bookbinder Edgar Mansfield - Allen was very kind in his review, and I wrote to him saying so and with thanks - after that we had an occasional & sporadic correspondence that I should say did not venture into the craft of the art of printing at any real level - and the last card I had from him arrived just a few months before he died - so, to have a copy of one of his presses (which I ordered just over 20 years after Allen's review) on the other side of the world was and is to me one of the most significant connections I have with the centres of the craft, which are decidedly not in Australia or New Zealand - now, all my printing is done on the Lewis Allen press, and I am thus in daily memory of him and of Steve Pratt - in this sense, every time I touch the press I honour the memories now of both men, and salute the pleasure & information I have gained from their labours - Vale, Steve Pratt - Vale, Lewis Allen -

2013 is here, and so are we. . .

usually, when I need photos for this here blog, I ask Miriam if she'd be so kind to take 'em, and I set them up and all sort of thing, but today she looked into the printery and said she'd like to take a picture or two - and here I am, the happy recipient of these to kick off the new year - all to do with the binding of RED SQUARE being ready to enter its last procedure - 

tho it was the ball of cut threads ready for sewing that first caught her eye -

which then led onto this -

with two variants on a more or less single view -

and this - 

progress on The next word

here's one view of the front covers of RED SQUARE - The next word - type is Umbra on a Ruscombe flax handmade paper - next up is sewing (intricate!) the two signatures to the cover - the slipcase making has been interrupted by this weird event they call 'christmas', so the book will be ready post out in the new year - and speaking of the new year, may all of us have a better 2013 than we had a 2012 - I know, every day is a miracle, let's be thankful & a' that - but I wouldn't mind a world in which our murderous interest in each other was not so endlessly & vividly exemplified on a daily basis - still, the turtledoves come to be fed each morning, the flowers keep blooming, the moving world keeps us floating about in its brilliant air, the sun gives warmth & floods my little printery with light from the east - and already I'm dreaming of my next book & the beautiful Greek type of Nicolas Jenson, Venice, 1472 - but here's another view of the covers, all laid out in a row -

CODEX 2013

besides binding right now I am preparing/gathering material for CODEX 2013, coming up in February next year at Berkeley, California - as well as having an Electio Editions table at the Book Fair, I will also be representing Codex Australia, which will be at CODEX for the first time - 

Codex Australia started up in Melbourne, Australia last April, and we now have a healthy and growing list of Sponsors, and the first of its programs are up & running - check out the website to see what's happening -

I am also privileged to be one of the Artist Speakers at the Codex Symposium, along with paper maker Timothy Barrett, and book makers Russell Maret & Veronica Schapers - the Keynote Speakers will be Sandro Berra & Mark Dimunation - 

at the Book Fair, some of the very finest books & book makers in the world will be on show (see the list on the CODEX website) and the Symposium promises to be an intellectual feast as the Book Fair promises to be an aesthetic one - 

fresh news from Ruscombe Paper Mill

above is a fresh notice on the Ruscombe website - the paper being revived is one I have bought for the next Electio book - but the background picture is of printed pages from RED SQUARE : the next word printed partly on Ruscombe's copy of Barcham Green's India Office and partly on a small supply I still had of the original Barcham Green - and about to be issued from Electio - the slipcases are currently being done while the printer morphs into binder over the next couple of weeks

more on Alessandro Zanella

visited Heavenly Monkey's excellent blog, to find notice (his entry on 27.11.12) of an obituary & online exhibition of Alessandro Zanella's work at the University of Utah J Willard Marriott Library - go to HM's blog to click thru to the show. . . 

and it's funny how the familiar can almost slide out of mind or knowledge or memory but, I had to reach recently for Richard-Gabriel Rummonds's Printing on the iron handpress from my bookshelf to be reminded that the photograph on the cover is of, of course, Alessandro Zanella - a fitting, if small, memorial to a great printer

in memoriam Alessandro Zanella, printer

early last July (I cannot find an exact date) Alessandro Zanella, handprinter, of the Edizioni Ampersand, Verona, Italy, died unexpectedly. I can find almost nothing online that registers this event, or honors him, or gives even a short story of his life – and I’m sorry to say I cannot make up that lack here – Alessandro Zanella has been in my mind as a printer for a long time, first as a colleague & fellow printer with Richard-Gabriele Rummonds, and then out on his own as Edizioni Ampersand – in part this attraction was one of those romantic & purely emotional “connections” in that one of New Zealand’s best known literary printers, Denis Glover (1912-1980) of Caxton Press used to write to me as ‘Dear Ampersand Alan’ (I used ampersands in my poetry, something he would never do) – and I once wrote an essay titled & the ampersand, which I printed in 1990 – but I knew he printed on a rare Stanhope iron handpress (the only one I had seen was given the late D F McKenzie and his Wai-te-ata Press at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand by Cambridge University), and I knew that he taught handpress printing, and at one time I seriously considered signing up but the costs were then prohibitive for me – rummaging about online I found a nice tribute of one his teaching classes by Marnie Parsons of Running The Goat – and here you can find a short account of the course and some fine pictures of the students in action, taken by Alessandro himself -

when I found out that he had passed away I contacted Vamp and Tramp Booksellers and I now have one of the most beautiful books in my collection, Persephone by Yannis Ritsos with woodcuts by Joe Tilson – exquisite printing, beautiful design, and a screenprinted paper over boards cover, the text printed in both Greek & English - Vamp and Tramp still have a few copies of a few of Ampersand’s titles –

I think the passing of a handprinter at Zanella’s level deserves some real acknowledgment and I hope to see something soon that keeps the profile & the spirit of the books of Alessandro Zanella alive. . . 

progress on RED SQUARE

the printed sheets for RED SQUARE are piling up - 5 sheets printed, 3 to go - and each sheet has up to 10 printings in up to 7 colors - at the current production rate I hope to have the work done by end of October - here's one sheet photograph'd, others will follow soon -

Bemboka handmade paper

I've now received the information I needed regarding Bemboka handmade paper, and will report later on the results of my enquiry - meantime, I'm interested to know how many books have been printed using Bemboka paper - if anyone has information, I'd be glad to have it, and I'll begin a list of them, with these to start with - 

William Shakespeare, The phoenix and the turtle, Escutcheon Press, Pearl Beach NSW 1991.

Donald Friend, An alphabet of owls, printed by Jim Walker at the Croft Press for Richard Griffin for Gryphon Books, Melbourne VIC 1981.

Sylvan Type Works

a note to say that the Sylvan Type Works of Nicholas Summers is still operating at full capacity, in spite of the fact that his website is, shall I say, a little less mobile than he is just now. He asks people not to be fazed by that, and to contact him as you need, and he will attend to your enquiry. For myself, I am beginning to realise that Nicholas is emerging as a significant local Australian maker & supplier of much basic ancillary equipment for letterpress and handpress printing. In the recent Adventure & Art exhibition at the University of Melbourne, one of his father's books, Robert Summers, How is a man: commonplace book, (Escutcheon Press, Pearl Beach NSW 1999), a beautifully designed & printed work, was on display, along with a lovely simple rendering of Shakespeare's The Phoenix and the Turtle, pictured here - the paper is the legendary Bemboka handmade paper, an enterprise long gone now, but about which I'd like to know more - SO, anyone with information about Bemboka Handmade Paper, when they operated in Australia, why they closed down, where is the equipment now etc etc - I'd be grateful to hear from you - in any case, here's the Shakespeare, printed by Robert Summers, 1991, in 55 copies. . . 

Codex Australia website

CODEX AUSTRALIA website is now up & running and the organisation itself is well & truly launched - check the site out - Codex Australia - one of the advantages of being a Sponsor is occasional visits to book artists' studios or to those with significant private book collections - the first of these is coming up on October 14 at the studio of Bruno Leti in Melbourne - and in November, the first of the Codex Bolton Lectures (open to everybody) will be held - check the Codex website for more precise details closer to the time of the events. . . 

another new book

another new book, well, perhaps, it's always a tricky question - am I repeating myself - we spend our lives repeating the same words - that we do so in different orders makes what, exactly, sort of difference - however, at least I can say I have begun work on another book - for many years I and I suppose countless others have admired the work of Hendrik Werkman, who made typographic prints at the handpress from materials, types, blocks, rollers etc that were to be found in his printery - he produced a periodical, in Dutch, tho the title is in English (never seen any commentator comment on that), The Next Call - now that I have ceased printing the work of others, I have picked up on the wish to in some measure emulate the unique Werkman (is it 'workman' in English, for that would suit me very well) and produce a printed periodical titled The next word - all my books now will have that title, plus a subtitle, which will relate to the title in different (ha! I keyed in "deferent" ways - which, is also, as someone said, 'of the matter' - the present book is The next word : Red Square - where 'Red Square' refers to the imaginary exhibition posited by Arthur C Danto (The transfiguration of the commonplace, 1981) which consisted of several visually identical paintings of red squares with very different captions. . . the work will be in many colors thruout, with a mix of wood & metal types, printed damp on Barcham Green India Office handmade paper & Ruscombe India Office handmade paper at the handpress - in 40 copies (Werkman's periodical was done in 40 copies) tho my books will likely be all 32 pages where his were of 8 pages only - in any case, the 'Werkman' text for this book takes all the Dutch words in his 9 issues that also spell out English words, and these have become my words for the book - I am indebted to Arthur Danto for permission to use his idea - I'll keep you posted on progress. . . for the fun of it, here are the Dutch/English words -

[the versos]

Dutch words in The next call that also spell English words

was         reeds        van         met         datum         die         rose         is         want         reveille         elk         mild         man         also         dag         door         stem         den         horrible         execution         immense         vent         moment         crier         art     aspiration         pour         diner         meditations         encore         plus         rend         smart         beer         over         toga         zoo         ex libris         cosmos         boulevard         leg         bent         president of         drift         wilt         program         punt         blank         Three cheers for the Fresco’s            Baedeker         span         ware         doctor         best         begin         machine         motor          hotel         reaction         rang         &         stand         cargo         radio         blue         band         en masse         dividend         effect         avant-garde         manuscript         burger         held         week         journalist         per         post         loudspeaker         past         auto         stank         detail         face         gladden         coefficient         credit         cyclostyles         offers         dogma         surplus         element         sport         war         mutter

nice double image

I cannot for the life of me remember where I found this image, or who made the work or who posted it online - if anyone can tell me I'd be very grateful - 

[a few days later] many thanks to Philip Gallo, who sent me the following information - 
Italian furniture and interior design company Saporiti has come up with a clever and unique concept for this wooden bookshelf. By playing around with the placement of the shelves within each box, they were able to visibly form the phrase “READ YOUR BOOKCASE.” Each individual shelf contains a different letter and can 
be stacked to form a complete word or stand freely on its own.