EQUUS: how the OSP edition came about

Over the years, there have been many ways in which we have found texts which tempt us to work with them and many ways also in which we have discovered artists whose work we can visualise within one of our books. Our newest venture is a dramatic example of these arcane processes.

This remarkable (and vast) drawing in conte crayon is by Clive Hicks-Jenkins and has hung in our hall since 2001 when it was shown in his Mari Lwyd exhibition in Newport Museum and Art Gallery. We are constantly moved, torn apart, rendered speechless by the power of this picture . . .

. . . as indeed was our friend, Callum James, who happened to be staying a night with us some time ago. Sleepless (not unusual for this perpetual motion man!) at 2am or thereabouts, he found himself standing in front of it for an hour or more.

Not long afterwards he went to one of the early performances of Equus in the 2007 production of Peter Shaffer’s play with Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe in the lead roles. The next day he visited our stand at the Watercolours and Drawings Fair in London. He rushed in saying ‘you have to put that play and that artist together - they are meant’.

We did indeed put it to Clive Hicks-Jenkins who then declared how overwhelmed he had been by the play when he first saw it in the 1970s. He had always hoped he might direct it in those earlier days when he was a choreographer and theatre director and had also worked with puppets and figures such as John Napier had created for the horses in that first production. The idea grew on him . . .

The author and his agent were agreeable to the possibility of such a book and so Clive and Nicolas set about finding a way of presenting this long, dramatic text in relation to images which Clive was determined should not detract from the language of the drama but would enhance the moods and states of mind of the characters as they moved through their confusion and distress.



The imagery was created in ink but on multiple grounds. Line work on paper but solid work, with techniques such as sgraffito, on a transparent overlay. These were combined on photopolymer blocks to print the image, in black, on to the page on which the text (using a deeply dense green ink) had already been printed.

We add here a few images to give an idea of what is soon to be a most spectacular book. After what has been a mammoth labour on all sides, we are absolutely thrilled with the result. Sneak previewers say it is probably one of our best!

The bindery are at work now and we will post lots more photographs in a few days time - together with important details such as price!






We are to going to ' launch' the book on 25 September at the London Art Book Fair in the
Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX
tel. 020 7522 7888



Underground: Aldgate East, Liverpool St, Tower Gateway DLR


Friday 25 September: Private view 2pm-5pm: Open to Public 5-11pm
Saturday 26: 11am - 6pm
Sunday 27: 11am - 6pm

'New' wood engravings from Peter Reddick

However much fun it may be to obtain pictures, or whatever, from sympathetic galleries and dealers, it is even more rewarding to have them direct from the artist.

A fantasy version of this sort of transaction could involve paintings torn, still dripping with paint, from an artist's easel or a printmaker just popping across to his Albion so that a particular block could be rolled up so a proof could be taken! The other day we received two lovely wood engravings . . . but through a process very different from the one I have just described!




Peter Reddick had come to see us about something quite other and I announced that I had 'rediscovered' an article about him, together with two other wood engravers, in Volume 7 of the splendid journal Motif - seen below with its glorious cover by Alan Davie.



Now this, as you can see (together with other mouth-watering offerings) from the Contents below, was published in

1961!

I found that I greatly admired all Peter's work in this article (together with the others artists) but there were two prints that I thought were incredibly strong and would be seen as innovative now, let alone then.



Absurd though it seemed to attempt to order a commodity from a 'catalogue' dated 1961, I nevertheless revealed my interest to Peter and wondered whether he might possibly have a proof of either or both lurking around somewhere. Peter said he had no idea but that he would search through his box labelled "Early Stuff".

Wonderfully, he was able to find just what I had wanted and a swopping bargain (another very satisfying thing to do) was struck.

Thank you Peter!

Thoughts on some books, back from the binders.

Although, of course, I complete the printing of each of our books there and then (and it cannot be reprinted), the binding of the folded and collated sheets is done in batches. We might start off by binding half the edition and, if the book catches many eyes, we might be back for more within a few months. It could however be that the final tranche of copies goes to the binder a decade, or more, after first publication.

We are very happy with this. A good start should pay us back for the cost of actual outgoings such as paper and, of course, the binding, after which we are very content with a succession of sales over months or years. It is exciting when we 'meet', at a book fair or online, a collector who is passionate about this or that sort of book which is one of our specialities but has not been aware of us . . . until now!

Freshly bound copies of these three books have just arrived from the binder. As it happens, each of these, very different, books was published quite some time ago but I, for one, like them still and am quite proud of them. I remember the designing of them and discussions with the artists as the projects developed and I am aware, with sadness, that two of the three are no longer with us.

Over the years since these bindings were first designed and materials chosen, a number of types of cloth have been discontinued and alternatives have had to be chosen. Other small changes have had to be made but it makes us VERY happy to know that the HUMAN BEINGS who were responsible for creating these bindings in the first place remain exactly the same now.

The Fine Bindery has given way to The Fine Book Bindery and the financial structures and ownership have changed over the years but we are happy to know that we can get initial advice and helpful reactions to our (often daft) first thoughts from the same expert who advised us more than two decades ago and that the sewers and the case-makers and the spine blockers are again as they always were!

Fuller details about these books can be found on our website, if you wish to turn them up.

In the matter of their prices, the figures on the website will be the same as they have always been for that has been our policy wherever possible. This means that many of our early books seem almost ridiculously cheap for what they are. [Indeed we often see secondhand copies offered via the book-search websites at higher prices than we are still charging for new copies!]

Inevitably, however, costs rise and Frances and I feel that must increase the prices of these three books on September 1st 2009, together with a number of other titles, BUT any orders received before that time will be charged at the existing prices. Run for your chequebooks!



GYMNOPAEDIAE
images by J. Martin Pitts











THE SEAFARER
translated by Kevin Crossley-Holland images by Inger Lawrance












THE FLUTE OF SARDONYX
by Edmund John images by Nicholas Wilde

Before they all go over . . .

Sunday evening. I've had a good day in the printing office, enjoying the advantages of its stone walls and cave-like feeling as the temperatures here creep up the dizzy 20s!

All sorts of things I should do this evening, I am sure, but I just thought I would indulge myself by posting a number of ROSE photographs taken, in one quick go round the garden, a couple of days ago. No captions, no latin names . . . just some photographs I hope you will enjoy.


NOTE: They look so much better enlarged with a click!

Mutantcy and a terrible destruction

If you have been here before, you may remember the above photograph, a plant of rich and velvety lushness that had just turned up in one of our 'pots'. A Mullein of course. Later it was seen to contain at its heart a diamond of great beauty which I also tried to photograph.

One turn of Fortune's Wheel produced all that deliciousness. Now another turn and all is changed.




The ravages began to be apparent about a week ago but now the complete plant has something of the appearance of a bombed tower block.





The perpetrators look like tigers in their particular jungle but Frances' researches lead us to suspect that they are not on their way to stardom as exotic Hawk Moths, as I had hoped, but, rather more mundanely, they will emerge as Large White Butterflies!







The scent of Lemon Verbena is an important element of the olfactory background to my childhood (along with Sweet Peas and Lilies of the Valley) and I always try to have a pot of it within pinching distance of a route from the house used many times a day.

Apart from the smell there is not much special about the plant in my view except for the fact that it usually fails to 'get going' in the Spring until just after the point when I have spent considerable emotion over its presumed demise!





This year was different! I am no horticulturalist and I have no idea whether this is a common occurrence but I was amazed and fascinated to notice that the plant had contrived to create a double leaf, as you can see here.

Amazing enough for the plant to have done it but I was enthralled at how extraordinarily beautifully it had done the job. I feel that if I were to give a single leaf to all manner of designers, artists, geometers and so on with the request that they design a double version, they would not come up with a more perfect shape than we have here.

Out & About

Frances says (!)

It may seem, to some readers of this blog, as though we spend all our time wafting about in meadows filled with cow parsley, cornflowers and apple blossom but here are some dates when we leave the sunny slopes and head off to places where our books can be seen and bought!

Olympia - The Antiquarian Book Fair

Thursday 4 June 4pm-9pm
Friday 5 June 11am - 7pm
Saturday 6 June 11am - 5.30pm

Olympia 2 Hammersmith Road London W14 8UX

This is the first time that this famous Fair has included designer bookbinders and a Private Press . . . us. Our stand is downstairs and on the way to refreshing coffee and somewhere to sit down. Quite possibly the perfect position! Do come to the Fair if you can. We can send you a free ticket, if you ask.

Abergavenny Art Shop and Gallery
Each year this exciting gallery shows the work of book artists and this year
Unfolding - celebrates the book in many forms by fine artists, printmakers and applied artists.
6 June - 11 July 2009

London Art Book Fair 2009,
Whitechapel Gallery, London E1
25-27 September 2009

This is the successor to the London Artists’ Book Fair run for many years by Marcus Campbell. He is now expanding our horizons to collaborate with the newly re-furbished Whitechapel Gallery. The aim is to show the work of 70 international artists, bookmakers, gallery presses, publishing houses, art magazines and antiquarian dealers. More details nearer the time . . .

Oxford Fine Press Fair,
Oxford Brookes University
Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November 2009

The fair happens only every other year and this year promises to have some exciting presses from many parts of the world showing their most recent work, apart from everybody's favourites from around the UK. Again, we will post times and details of speakers nearer the time.



as a special extra:

Larkhall Fine Art Dealers
10 St Margaret Buildings, Bath BA1 2LP
01225 444480

C. F. Tunnicliffe RA OBE The Memorial Collection Part Two

Gallery Hours Tuesday - Saturday 10:30 - 5:30 Other times by appointment

The complete portfolio of nine large wood engravings of birds will be exhibited in the Larkhall gallery throughout June. Prints are available for sale now.



The wonderful wood engravings of birds in this exhibition were printed by Nicolas - but are only on sale from Larkhall Gallery

Happy Birthday to me!

This post is not designed to generate lots of late birthday cards or even good wishes for this particular day . . . for I prefer to think of every day as special. It is rather me rejoicing yet again that I was born at this, the most beautiful, time of year. My mother always said that I arrived in the middle of the night and that nightingales were singing!

. . . how I wish that this book was one of ours! . . . 6

Here is a book which I not only objectively admire but which gives me tingles down the spine when I turn its pages. I love sharing the joys of it with friends, not least because the tiny 'run' means that there will not be many other copies around.

It was all a matter of chance, and the need for a quick decision! Towards the end of 1996, Frances and I were staying with some friends in Devonshire. This was interesting enough, because we so seldom leave here, but one evening we were taken to the Private View of an exhibition by members of "The Dartington Printmakers" at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen.

"You should be interested," we were told, "because it takes the form of a book."

We were interested . . . from the very first glance.

On entering the hall where the exhibition was being held, we were faced with the amazing sight of thirty-six (the complete edition!) copies of a large book laid out in an exact grid in the middle of the floor (3 x 12, as I remember), with the design on the cover, striking enough on one copy, making a really dramatic repeat pattern.

I was immediately intrigued and set out to find out what this extraordinary book was. I can best quote a few sentences from the preface by Michael Honnor (the Svengali figure behind the venture, I understand!) in the catalogue.

A Printmakers' Flora is a remarkable limited edition Artists' book. Every part of it has been hand-made at Dartington by twenty one printmakers, a bookbinder and a letterpress printer. The idea was to make a large, luxurious book about British wild flowers in the form of an anthology of their common names. The book would exploit the diversity of the artists taking part and use a wide variety of printmaking techniques. Thirty flowers would be chosen, each illustrated by two Artist's prints. The result is a strikingly handsome, unusual and substantial book, bound in blue silk and printed on heavy artist's paper and hand-made Chinese paper. The edition consists of thirty seven books with one Artist' Proof copy. Twenty three of these belong to the participants, one has been purchased by the V & A, one by the Dartington Hall Trust and three by major collectors. The remaining nine are for sale.

N I N E copies!!! . . . and the private view was simply seething with people who looked to me as if their cheque-books were always at the ready one such occasions!

I should mention that, by now, we had seen the inside of the book. Not by looking at a copy of it (all were on parade on the floor) but, in an adjoining room, in the form of spreads/prints framed on the walls. A further limited edition of each of these prints was for sale and a 'set' of them seemed quite expensive. It seemed to me, however, that having them bound together in a book, would make them more, rather than less, fascinating . . . but then I am a book person.

Another advantage was that, in this form, it seemed to be priced as a book is priced rather than as something from an art gallery. How often have we been surprised and aggrieved at other examples of this but, on this occasion, it worked in our favour because the book contained everything, was a stunning object but the price seemed almost moderate for the wonder that it was.

Anyway, we BOUGHT a copy and have never regretted it. We turn its pages often, particularly in the winter months when spring and summer seem so far away.

I will not comment further but will just let these wonderful pages speak for themselves. You need to know one more thing - the scale of the thing. The book is, by most standards, vast. The spread of the opened book measures 30 inches!