Private presses world-wide - Items on Display

Kit Silver

Three London cats

London: Strawberry Press, 1999

While working as a librarian at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, Paul Nash compiled a list of the private presses whose works the Library held. He was inspired by this to found his own press, the Strawberry Press, in 1989. The colophon of this volume refers back to his days as librarian, noting ‘46 copies [of this impression] are on Zerkall mould-made paper, 40 being numbered, and six for the Beloved Copyright libraries...’

864.a.365(22)

Lois Morrison

Memories of fruit

Flying Fish Press, 1988

Lois Morrison is a book artist who in addition to printed work also specialises in fabric books. Julie Chen’s Flying Fish Press was established in California in 1987.

This edition is limited to 45 copies.

864.a.376(1)

Printing as art: William Morris & his circle of influence

Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Press of Appletree Alley, 1994

Barnard Taylor founded the Appletree Alley Press in 1981. Over its 21 years of life it enjoyed a significant collaboration with Bucknell University in Lewisburg. This study of William Morris was issued in a limited edition of 150 copies; the Library has copy no.142.

864.c.114

Floyd Alonzo McClure

Chinese handmade paper

Newtown, Pennslvania: Bird & Bull Press, 1986

With specimens of papers and a facsimile of a leaf from the South China morning post, Tuesday, 12 April, 1932. This is number 217 of a limited edition of 325 copies.

Syn.4.98.4

Siegfried Sassoon

The path to peace

Worcester: Stanbrook Abbey Press, 1960

The Stanbrook Abbey Press was started in the nineteenth century to serve the needs of the English Benedictine congregation, and developed significantly in the 1950s with technical advice from John Dreyfus and others. Siegfried Sassoon was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1957, and in the last decade of his life the Stanbrook Abbey Press produced several small editions of his work. This copy of The path to peace is one of 20.

S721.b.96.4

The surprising adventures of Blue-Eyed Patty, the valiant female soldier... with illustrations by Donald Friend

Melbourne: Croft Press, 1979

Originally published in Wolverhampton about 1805, this version of the popular tale in which a resourceful young woman follows her lover into the army takes the pair to Australia via South America. This is copy number 161 of a limited edition of 250 copies.

S727.d.97.19

Edmund Spenser

Prothalamion & Epithalamion

Mission, British Columbia: Barbarian Press, 1998

Spenser’s marriage songs have several times been paired in private press editions. Jan and Crispin Elsted began printing on a trip to England in 1976, when they learned the basic skills from Graham Williams of the Florin Press. They subsequently purchased several 19th-century English presses, which returned to Canada with them in 1978 and formed the beginnings of the Barbarian Press. This volume is one of 100 printed.

864.a.470(4)

Thomas Love Peacock

The legend of St Laura

Kingston, Ontario: Locks’ Press, 2000

The text is a poem from Thomas Love Peacock’s novel Gryll Grange, first published in 1860. The Locks’ Press, founded by Fred and Margaret Lock, is devoted to the publication of pre-1900 literary works which the Locks feel deserve a wider audience. Fred undertakes the press work, while Margaret provides the woodcut illustrations. Private press printing developed in Canada only as late as the 1930s.

864.a.430(4)

Thomas Coryate

Venice visited

Hinton Charterhouse, Bath: Old School Press, 1999

A selection from Coryate’s crudities, a kind of ‘rough guide’ to continental Europe for cosmopolitan travellers originally published in 1611. The pochoir illustrations are by John Thornton.

864.a.407(6)

James Joyce

Wavewords from Ulysses

Seattle: Windowpane Press, 1996

Bonnie Thompson Norman, proprietor of the Windowpane Press, is a professional hand bookbinder, and also teaches printing and bookmaking at evening and week-end classes. This is copy number 49 of a limited edition of 50.

864.a.516(1)

Paul Merchant

Stones: poems

Exeter: Rougement Press, 1973

This book of poetry published in Exeter has an introduction by Ted Hughes, who lived locally; in the 1970s the Rougemont Press published several works by Hughes and his first wife Sylvia Plath. This volume, illustrated by the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, was produced in a limited edition of 150 copies.

Syn.4.97.12