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One of the most notable engravers in Oxford in the period was Michael Burghers.
He engraved plates not only for the University but also for other editors and
booksellers who had their books printed at the University Press. His elusive
story has not been told before, though he gets mentions in the works
of Harry Carter, Falconer Madan, and other more recent writers.
To give you a
flavour of the delicacy and precision of some of Burghers's work, here's a small snippet (at
lo-res) from one of his engravings. I love the way the man at bottom right is
looking at us.
We felt it was a
good moment to prepare a monograph about Burghers and, as well as
gathering the few facts known of his life and offering a conspectus of his
style, technique, and output, we will be bringing his work alive with prints
from some of his original plates. We're fortunate in having been given permission
by the
Press for Jim to print from eight of Burghers's plates dating from the period 1680-1720.
(Fortunately some survived the First World War: tragically for us, the
majority were scrapped to provide copper plates for war materials, including
that for the engraving shown above.) The
book will run to about 32pp plus the engravings in a separate section. Given the labour required to
print on a rolling-press and the need to preserve these ancient artefacts, the
edition will be of just forty copies with about thirty for sale.
In line with our
previous books about the Press the book will be a demy quarto, and the text will
be printed letterpress in Monotype Van Dijck. We currently expect that the text will be printed on a
slate-grey Abbey Mills laid paper, and the engravings on a heavy BFK Rives to bring out their
detail. The binding and price are still to be
determined. However, we will be offering a pre-publication price and in return
for pre-payment we will print a subscriber's name in the colophon to yield an ad
personam copy.
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