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THE ART OF INTAGLIO. PRODUCED ON A LETTERPRESS WITH A COLLECTION OF TWELVE PRINTS OF 18TH CENTURY LONDON TRADESMEN'S CARDS with SCHLOCKER & THE FISHES.
Morris, Henry
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Limited to 115 numbered copies. Engravings and etchings (intaglios) are printed on special presses which exert the far greater pressure needed for this kind of printing.
"I had been told that intaglio could not be printed satisfactorily on a letterpress, which is generally true. But in 2009 I tried my hand, printing two intaglio plates successfully by letterpress, albeit not very large ones. In this new book I have printed by letterpress, twelve intaglio plates, some as large as 5" x 6.5".
These images were made from Ambrose Heal's privately published 1925 London Tradesmen's Cards of the Eighteenth Century, which showed 101 collotype prints of old engravings advertising the wares, goods and services offered about 250 years ago. I have been attracted to these "cards"-they are really papers of differing sizes-ever since I got Heal's book fifteen years ago. Thanks to my recent introduction to intaglio, I have returned twelve of these prints to their original 18th century state: you can run your finger over the print and feel the image. Students and collectors of ephemera are acquainted with these cards, but for those who are not, some of Heal's comments may enlighten:
...To anyone with a liking for old things the Trade Card must make an irresistible appeal. It is so convincingly of its own time.
...The old signs that hung over the ship doors and are reproduced on the Traders' Cards are of great antiquity and interest. The names of the old streets, many of which have long since been swept away, such as 'Knaves' Acre,' 'Rosemary Lane,' 'Wendegaynlane,' take one's imagination quite apart from their historical or topographical connections.
...The lettering is invariably well drawn and well spaced and the designing of the devices, if sometimes crude, is always direct and interesting.
They reflect the art of the engraver through two centuries.
A foeword and texts on the Origin of Intaglio, The Process, and background information on Heal and his book, precede the twelve engravings.
But wait-There's More!
On an entirely unrelated subject, a 16-page addition relates an unforgettable event in the early life of Henry Morris, entitled Schlocker & The Fishes, thus making this book my first dos-a-dos binding. This brief account is illustraded with two full-page wood engravings by Wesley Bates. Such accounts generally become booklets but I dislike the impermanence of the booklet, and have long wanted to see this in print."
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Books of related interests - -
> Hopkins, Richard L. (editor), PRIVATE TYPECASTERS, PRESERVING THE CRAFT OF HOT-METAL TYPE INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY.
> Bachaus, Theodore, THE BOOKSELLERS OF SAN SERRIFFE.
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BIBLIOGRAPHER, A JOURNAL OF BOOK-LORE (THE)
Ulrich & Kup p.146. The complete set of this periodical under this title. Hundreds of articles on bookselling, printing, collecting, and bibliography. This magazine was continued as Book Lore. Pages 95 - 160 are detached and loosely inserted. Some tears in pages as the paper is fragile.
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