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THE SP CENTURY: BOSTON'S SOCIETY OF PRINTERS THROUGH ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF CHANGE.
Kosofsky, Scott-Martin (editor)
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This beautifully produced volume celebrates the centennial of Boston's Society of Printers, the oldest honorary society of its kind in America. Founded in 1905 by such luminaries as Daniel Berkeley Updike, Bruce Rogers, Henry Lewis Johnson, Carl Purington Rollins, and William Dana Orcutt, the Society's dedicated membership over the years has included the likes of William A. Dwiggins (who in 1922 actually coined the term "graphic design"), Rudolph Ruzicka, John Howard Benson, Ray Nash, Roderick Stinehour, Dorothy Abbe, Hermann Zapf, Philip Hofer, Leonard Baskin, and Matthew Carter.
The book's ten original essays cover unusually broad ground for such a publication, not only delving into the Society's history and Boston's, but also into more philosophical terrain, examining questions such as the definition of printing itself, the political and sociological worlds of some prominent members, and the grand-scale game of "musical chairs" played by those who have called themselves "printers" over the past hundred years. An essay on type and lettering design among the SP membership and its circle is especially rich, comprising interviews with leading practitioners and including information on these crafts that cannot be found elsewhere. A review of a century of meeting announcements is a microcosmic history of American graphic design and printing techniques in the 20th century. Also examined are the habits of the great book collectors among the Society's members, and the distinguished group who have continued in the realm of handmade books and fine letterpress printing.
The authors are all noted scholars and practitioners: Lance Hidy, Jean Evans, Eleanor M. Garvey, James E. Mooney, Barry Moser, Katherine McCanless Ruffin, Darrell Hyder, Al Gowan, Victor Curran, and Scott-Martin Kosofsky. The designer of the book is the renowned Roderick Stinehour, who contributed a colophon that is a fine essay in its own right. Scott-Martin Kosofsky, well-known designer and author of Judaic works, edited the volume. As one might expect from a book produced by and for The Society of Printers, the Design and Execution are exceptional. The illustrations have been rendered in stunning four-color tone, making everything from the black-and-white images to the full color illustrations crisp and eye-catching. Co-published with The Society of Printers and The Boston Public Library.
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Books of related interests - -
> Nash, Ray, PRINTING AS AN ART
> Bianchi, Daniel B., MERRYMOUNT PRESS, A CENTENARY KEEPSAKE.
> Thompson, Susan Otis, AMERICAN BOOK DESIGN AND WILLIAM MORRIS With a new Foreword by Jean-Francois Vilain.
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THE GILBART PRIZE ESSAY ON THE ADAPTATION OF RECENT DISCO...
by Sharp, Granville
Third edition, but first illustrated edition. (Bridson & Wakeman B59; Honeyman no.2844; absent from AMEX Coll. Cat.). A fascinating book. J.W. Gilbart, manager of the London and Westminster Bank, offered a prize for the best essay showing how the articles and inventions shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851 could best be put to service in the banking industry; this essay by Granville Sharp won. The first two editions did not include the illustrations and samples; for this third edition, the publisher collected handbills, trade catalogues, flyers, samples, and ephemera from each of the exhibitors and bound them with the essay. This edition thus served as a virtual trade catalogue for the banking industry. Among the widely varied specimens are checks, security paper and envelopes, watermarking techniques, paper samples, banknotes illustrating various engraving techniques, photographic reproductions illustrating procedures to foil counterfeiting of banknotes, seal cutters, and ink specimen sheets filled out by hand, as well as color lithographic illustrations. Also includes catalogues for office machine manufacturers and materials on bank buildings, interior decoration, plumbing, and security measures. This copy is missing 18 plates and 2 are damaged, viz, #3 Perkins' Bank Note, with combination of difficult engraving, #3A Ditto "faced" upon Perkins and Co's patent for the prevention of anastatic and photographic forgery, #6 Fisher's bank note, printed by one impression, #7 Ditto, Bill of Exchange, ditto, #9 Batho's Water Colour cheque, "London and Westminster Bank", #11 Ditto, Water Colour and Copper Plate Cheque, at two impressions, "Harris and Co., Bradford", #13 Nissen's Cheques, upon paper tinted in the pulp, #13G-H, & 13J-M Various Lithographic Cheques and Imitations, #14 Portal's watermark for Bank Notes, by Moulds and Dies, #15 Saunders' Watermark, #16 Ditto, #17 Wildes' Floreated Watermark, #18 Saunders' Parchment Paper for Bank Notes, &c., &c., #89 Horne's decorations. #13F has the signature cut out, and #51 has the specimen envelope removed. The Honeyman copy was also missing other plates and, indeed, a check of all known copies would probably yield various plates missing in the different copies as these copies were individually put together from available samples. With the bookplate of Gavin Bridson. Front pastedown rubbed.
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