Planned for Spring 2023

Some years ago I was exchanging printers' war stories with an eminent letterpress printer (whom I forswear to name). He recounted how he had spotted a missing full point in an edition just back from the binders, and how he had felt it necessary to print by hand all those missing points individually with an inked sort. 'Only the printer knows' were his words, and it is those words that I have borrowed for the title of this book which tells the story of the making - and disaster averted - of our book Venice Visited two decades ago.

By the beginning of this month, I had finished hand-setting the 6,200 words in 14pt Dante and had printed them on the damped Batchelor hand-made. Drying, pressing, folding, and gathering followed. (You can see something of what is involved when printing on damp paper in an earlier newsletter.)

There will be three variants in the edition totalling 62 copies. The book itself will be case-bound in quarter cloth, with a paper by Jemma Lewis on the boards (such as the one to the right), a label on the front board, about 345mm by 245mm, in all three variants. The deckle edge will be retained. 24pp.

Variant A will consist of the book together with about sixty Press letterpress ephemera in a clamshell archive box, plus a collection of ‘overs’ sheets from twenty-two past Press books in a further clamshell archive box, the two boxes held in yet another clamshell archive box. The price will be £220. A handful of copies are still available.

Variant B will consist of the book and more than forty Press letterpress ephemera in a clamshell archive box. The price will be £150. Ten copies for sale.

Variant C will be the book on its own. The price will be £90. Forty copies for sale.

Shipping will be extra at cost as usual.

If you would like to place a firm order for a copy of one of these variants please let me know. We hope to have copies ready for despatch in early 2023.


progress on The last papermakers of Fukushima		The paper arrives from Japan
Planned for Spring 2023		Through the good offices of a friend of Eleanor in Japan, we recently arranged for a collection of handmade papers to be shipped here for our new book. To our relief and excitement they arrived quickly and safely. (Regular readers will remember the FedEx disaster that befell us this time last year.)
Papermaker Koichi Anzai took the greatest care in preparing the paper for its journey from Kamikawasaki, as would someone who naturally takes great pride in his product. Amongst the papers that arrived were pure kozo papers made by Mr Anzai thirty or forty years ago, a gorgeous pink benibana (safflower dye) paper, and a paper treated with walnut dye (the walnut husks are boiled and the liquid strained, and a mordant such as alum is added). It seems almost sacrilegious to cut these beautiful sheets up in order to have samples for the book, but perhaps we shall put aside a full sheet or two! Meanwhile they sit in their boxes until we have decided how best to present them in the book. The text nears completion. The next step will be to build a dummy that brings together the texts, the photographs, and the paper samples in a workable binding. Then the typesetting and printing can begin. We anticipate that this will be early in the new year. The text will be hand-set in 14pt Fournier italic with Optima for ancillary matter.

Battered Santa says

'Compliments of the season to all our readers!'

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