Printing schools and other small presses - Items on Display

Milligan, Spike

The new rose-petals...; with an illustration by Rigby Graham

Leicester: Toni Savage, 1975

Over a period of 21 years Toni Savage produced over 400 of these sheets, each featuring a poet and artist, for distribution at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester. Most were limited to about 300 copies.

864.a.313(61)

Where his Lady keepes his hart

Leicester: Pandora Private Press, 1963

This pamphlet was handset by Patricia Green and printed by Toni Savage. The sixteenth-century author is known only by initials, A.W. The artwork is by Rigby Graham, a prolific illustrator of private press books and teacher in the printing and graphic design schools at the Leicester College of Art in the 1950s and 1960s. The colophon notes that about seventy copies were printed, ‘Finished on April Fool’s Day 1963.’

864.a.34(11)

Roebuck, Jim

The poppy’s song; illustrated by Deirdre Carr

Leicester: Black Knight Press, 1965

This was the first publication of the Black Knight Press, designed and printed by Duine Campbell who provided woodcut illustrations to numerous other Leicester private presses. The edition was limited to 90 copies, 80 printed on imitation Japanese paper and ten on ‘the genuine stuff’. The Library’s copy is one of those on imitation paper.

864.a.52(1)

Thomas Hennel

Six poems

[Tunbridge Wells]: Tunbridge Wells College of Art and Crafts, 1947

The text was composed on Monotype machines at Maidstone School of Arts and Crafts. Hennel, a painter as well as a poet, had died in captivity in the Far East in 1945. The volume is accompanied by a letter from E. Owen Jennings, the School’s Principal.

864.a.443(1)

Miss Parker

Specimen of Scotch travelling

[Cambridge: Historical Printing Room, University Library], 2003

Printing classes for members of the University have been carried on in the University Library since the bibliographical teaching press was founded here by Philip (‘Pip’) Gaskell in 1974. The texts are usually taken from manuscripts (or facsimiles of manuscripts) in the Library’s collections; this example is derived from a Roxburghe Club facsimile. The cover reproduces a drawing from the original journal, which was written in 1863; nothing is known of the author apart from her name.

864.a.211(68)

Peter Gwillim and Christopher Whitmore

Slate engraving, research and design

[Leicester]: Leicester College of Art, School of Printing, 1964

The illustrations in this book are derived from rubbings taken from gravestones in the East Midlands and Cornwall.

864.a.234(2)

A. G. Gardiner

Alpha of the plough: selected essays; illustrated with wood engravings by Barbara Huart

Rochester: Medway School of Art and Crafts, 1940

This volume was set by students of the ‘Monotype’ (Keyboard) Composition classes. The Medway School was eventually amalgamated with other institutions to form the University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester.

864.a.441(1)