A Fine Press creating and printing limited edition books by traditional letterpress.
Publications
Facilities at the Press
Book and Printing Fairs
With 2008 being devoted to historical research, we are attending very few Fairs, but will be at:
Links
(for books already published, see below)
Publications planned for 2008
(because of an on-going research programme, production continues to be very limited.)
Signs and Symbols
A checklist of Monotype mathematical and other signs, etc, held by the Press.
Accents
Another checklist, this time of the accented letter matrices held at the Press. It will also include ligatures and figures, but may not get printed until 2009.
Oxford Backwaters
This will be an innovative book about some of the streams in and around Oxford, with illustrations by Muriel Mallows, but awaits good weather before the artist ventures out to the river banks. It will now not be available until 2010, at the earliest.
Why is Robert Smiling?
A first birthday book for Robert. Illustrated with stock blocks. Set in 18pt Bembo. 16pp. 2¼ x 3 ins. 36 copies. UK£5.
Eddie's Wheel Book
A first birthday book for Eddie, who likes wheels. Illustrated with stock blocks. Set in 14pt Gill. 12pp. 2¾ x 2½ ins. 40 copies. UK£5
Corrugations
A set of two artists' books about corrugated tin structures in Australia, with linocuts by Katie Clemson and an original poem by Anne Bell. Set in 36pt Spectrum Italic. 22pp. 24 x 28 cm and 16pp. 14 x 28 cm. 35 copies. UK£600. See also Further details.
Paper Cranes
About the bird and its origami image. Illustrated with stock blocks and a watercolour, and complete with origami crane. Set in 10pt Perpetua. 29pp. 2¼" x 2¾". 44 copies. UK£30. See also Further details.
A Border Supplement
Shows the borders that we have acquired, or found at the back of drawers, since printing A Border Specimen. It is in the same format, showing one line specimens, and inch square patterns. Set in 12pt Bembo. 16pp. 11¾" x 8¾". 120 copies. UK£25.
A Petticoat Tale
Maddie's fifth birthday book, about a princess and her petticoats. Two hand coloured line drawings, text set in 10pt Gloucester Bold Italic. 16pp. 2¾" x 2¾". 60 copies. UK£15. See also Further details.
A Screw Story
A miniature book about a small collection of matrices of screw shapes, etc., that originated with Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds. Text set in 8pt Gill Sans. 60pp. 27/8" x 1¾". 60 copies. UK£48. See also Further details.
The Tyger
Poem by William Blake printed on assorted Nepali papers, and sewn into printed Nepali paper cover. Text in 16pt Spectrum. 16pp. 4¾" x 6". 34 copies. UK£20.
One-of-a-Kind Books
A series of single copies of miniature flower books, with watercolour illustrations and hand-written text. UK£60 for each book. See Further details.
24-line Antique Bold
The latest wood type specimen, printed in two colours. Japanese binding with paper covers. 20ff. Approx 4" x 10". 40 copies. UK£20. See also Further details.
Settings of Six Point Type
A miniature 32 page specimen of 6pt borders and 6pt type settings. Text set in 6pt Old Style, Plantin, Baskerville, Imprint, Gill, Greek, Grotesque, Modern, Spartan, Times, Univers. 32pp. 2¾" x 2". 50 copies. UK£20.
Fancy Papers
34 samples of the 1950s Sanderson range and their current replacement, together with a brief history of decorated papers. Set in 11 on 12pt Ehrhardt. 32 sheets sewn into boards. 6¾ x 9 ins. 95 copies. UK£60.
A Tiny Ten
Our granddaughter's 3rd birthday book, as a sequel to A Little Alphabet and A Small Piece of Action. A single section counting book illustrated with printers' stock blocks and dingbats to a count of 10. 16pp. 3 x 2 ins. 120 copies. UK£5. (This book had a working title of A Small Count)
Further details are given as Maddie's books
Border Specimen
A specimen book of the Monotype border matrices held and cast by the Alembic Press. Set in 12 on 14pt Bembo. 108pp. 11 x 8 ins. 100 copies. UK£144. (also available in sheets UK£110)
Further details are given as Borders
A Small Piece of Action
A miniature book of action rhymes. Set in 10pt Caslon Old Style, illustrated with stock blocks. 18pp. 3 x 2 ins. 120 copies. UK£5.
Further details are given as Maddie's books
A Tale of Two Benches
About the connection between artist Robert Gibbings and woodworker Bill Pointer, with a wood engraving by Robert Gibbings of his own bench and by Simon Brett of Bill Pointer's bench. Set in 14pt Perpetua. 24pp. 9 x 6½ ins. 120 copies. UK£30. (also available in sheets UK£20)
A Granjon Arabesque
A miniature book exploring one of Granjon's Arabesques. Set in 9 on 10pt Old Style 72pp. 2.75 x 2.5 ins. 140 copies. UK£36. (also available in sheets UK£24)
Further details are given as Arabesque.
6-line Wood Type Alphabet No.5
An ABC of Typefounding Terms. 6-line Winchester Condensed. 100 copies.
6-line Wood Type Alphabet No.6
An ABC of Parts of the Press. 6-line Sans Bold Italic. 100 copies.
Individual copies of the above two titles are now out of print, but a boxed set of all six titles is still available. UK£30.
Further details are given as 6 Line.
Signs and Symbols has completed the initial stage of listing the contents of over 400 boxes of matrices,and casting a specimen of each different sign matrix. A trial page layout has been set, cast, printed, and since modified to add more lines per page. Nearly all the set widths of the matrices have now been recorded from the Type Museum archives. Meanwhile the nine pages of the serial number and the 62 pages of shape order section of the book have been (hand)set, and the four pages of index are being (hand)set. The commentary giving usage, meaning, width, etc is being keyed and cast, and the introduction has yet to be edited before being set. At present, the book has grown to 88 pages, but final copyfitting should fit within this, as there is space for a few additions and deletions.
Accents is in the initial stage of listing all the matrices. These then have to be cast, the format of the book decided, and some of the accents identified and named.
A Border Supplement (see above) was duly completed in 2003, and inevitably we have now found a few more border matrices, buried in with the mathematical sorts. So the supplement does not show Border 7 and 103 in 6pt, though at least we had already shown these in other sizes. It will be a long wait before another supplement gets printed!
Hyde Farm is still postponed as the text continues to be held up by the withdrawn public records. Fragments was published in 2003, but quickly went out of print.
The following publications have recently gone out of print:
16 line Two Colour Sans
A Summer Garden
An Autumn Garden
A Winter Garden
M
A Paper Alphabet
Madeleine
A Little Alphabet
3 line Antique (Extremely) Expanded
This list is only a very small selection of what is available, and for example Briar Press, Ton Cremer, and Dave Tribby all have a much fuller selection.
A small group solely for the exchange of material that has been printed letterpress. Members contribute items approximately three times a year, with numbers being kept small enough to make the task of printing not too onerous. Alan Brignull at the Hedgehog Press now co-ordinates the distribution.
Five day or weekend workshops are offered when there is sufficient demand eg Introduction to Printing, Printing and Binding a Book, Designing and Printing Cards, etc. The Press is in the U.K., just outside Oxford, and has facilities for up to five or six in a class, depending upon the activity. We have run a very successful five day Letterpress Printing workshop at the Press for the last eight years, as well as running some weekend workshops. In 2008 the five day workshop from July 7th to 11th is fully booked, but there is a repeat from September 1st to 5th. See brief details for an outline. We hope to repeat this again in 2009, so e-mail Claire if interested.
We can also provide occasional letterpress one-day workshops for private customers, if numbers are sufficient.
For many years, the Press has been able to provide a place for an apprentice for a period of one to three months, once or twice a year. An on-going research project unfortunately means that no places will be available in 2007 or 2008, or the near future.
Sunday afternoon open workshops on casting type from Monotype Composition and Super casters are held approximately once a month from 2pm to 4pm at the Alembic Press. Dates for 2008 are May 18th, June 15th, July 13th, August 17th, September 14th, October 19th. These informal sessions are for anyone (enthusiast or otherwise) wanting to see or try out Monotype keyboards or casters. (See a glimpse of the equipment.) Phone 01865 391391 or e-mail AlembicPrs@aol.com for further details.
Some years the Press holds an Open Day, when all its equipment and productions are on show, often combined with a bring and buy sale of equipment, type, etc. Alternatively, the Press is sometimes on display to visitors for a week as part of the collective Oxford Artweeks. In 2008 and 2009, the Press has no plans for full Open Days as such, but is continuing the Open Typecasting afternoons on one Sunday a month.
As well as the workshops and open days at the Press (see above), the Alembic Press can provide hands-on demonstrations of aspects of letterpress printing at various exhibitions, fairs, and colleges, etc. For example, we provided a one day Non-adhesive Binding workshop at Swindon Arts Centre in May 2000, a one day miniature book workshop in Perth, WA in February 2001, a one day Making a Book workshop in Kidlington, Oxford in January 2003, a one day Books for Calligraphers workshop in Cannington, WA and a one day Introduction to Making Books workshop at Curtin University, WA in October 2003, and Cowaramup, WA in 2005, and University of Delaware in October 2006, and a Creating Handmade Books workshop at Denman College, Oxon, in 2007, to be repeated in 2008.
The Press is housed in a 70ft x 20ft stone barn and has available a collection of printing presses, comprising an Albion hand press, Vandercook and Farley cylinder proof presses, a Sigwalt Model 4 and two Adana 8x5, one Horizontal Quarto, one HS3 and one 5x3 table-top presses. (See a view of the printshop and some of the presses.)
The Press has a wide range of metal and wood type, from 5 point up to 90 line, for hand setting, and 5 to 14 point for machine setting.
There is a collection of Monotype matrices, keybars, etc., plus two keyboards, one Super caster, and two Composition casters, all in use for casting and for demonstration purposes. (See a view of the casting equipment.)
The Press is very occasionally able to accept commissions for designing and printing, be it letterheads or a book, but be aware that the work will be for typesetting and printing with metal type, and relief blocks, can only have limited colour work, and that all text will either be set by hand or keyboarded and cast on our Monotype equipment. Note that the Press does not publish work on behalf of others, and does not seek unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. Also, the Press is engaged on a heavy research programme until at least 2009.
We can occasionally provide bed and breakfast at Hyde Farm House, which was originally a stone hall house built by Abingdon Abbey circa 1290. (Click for a brief note and a photo of the front of the farmhouse.) It was extended in 1652, but retains many of its original features - beware there are low ceilings and uneven flagstones! There are two bedrooms (one twin bedded, one a double bed) and breakfast in the 700 year old dining room. Rates and further details upon request.
We now have an outpost in Western Australia, and can sometimes offer short-term holiday letting for 4 people in Margaret River, the heart of the WA wine country. See Granny James for more details.
Arising from a topic on the LETPRESS listserve group, we show some layouts of various styles of typecase. Blank case layouts are also shown, should you wish to insert your own lay. The pages are all separate, for ease of printing out, or downloading. An index to all the pages is available, as is a short introduction and a
glossary of (some of) the terms used. There is a brief note on variations in Job and Double Case, and Lower Case, and Upper Case styles. Some notes about the quantities of type possible in a Case and a Bill of type are also provided. Over 220 different typecases are shown to date, concentrating mostly on
normal (ie full) size cases for metal type, but including a few exotic cases, figure and spacing cases, etc, by way of example. Dates are given, as derived from the source documents (which are all listed in Sources), but for many of these sources there may be an earlier edition, or reference, that has not yet been consulted.
All these pages are part of our publishing project creating an on-line book of typecase information. Rather than publish once the full work is complete, chapters and pages are added as soon as they are written, and as time permits. The first pages were created in 1997, and amendments and additons continue as new information comes to light, for example where discovery of an earlier source changes dates of featured case lays, etc. The overall alphabetic index, the index of case lays and case configurations, and the list of sources are kept up-to-date as information is added. In view of this work-in-progress, please let us know if anything is missing or wrong!
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