Making up pages for Jekyll and Hyde

Later this year we’re publishing an illustrated edition of RL Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Or rather, it’s being published by Hand & Eye Editions, which we run with Brian Webb. It will be illustrated by Angela Barrett, and of course we’re very excited about it.

Our Monotype machines, one of which you can see in the background of the picture, aren’t running yet, so the book has been set by Harry McIntosh in Edinburgh. We’ve now had thirty galleys of 10-on-12 point Plantin from him, and we’ve been busy making them up into pages.

Donating for Haiti

Not long ago Phil was pointed to  Mike Hayes’s blog, which is largely about cycling and photography. Now he’s a regular reader. Mike is just starting a long bike ride from Chile to Peru and is asking for sponsorship. He’s supporting Shelterbox, who provide emergency shelter, warmth and dignity for those affected by man-made and natural disasters.

If you would like to donate you can do so here.

Pictures from our party

This is one of a number of photos that Steve Barclay took at our party last week. You can see them on Flickr.

Our first twenty-five years

Yesterday was the twenty-fifth anniversary of our first day in business and we celebrated with a party. Not everyone who had planned to join us could make it because of the snow, but we think there were still 60-70 people here. One of them was Phil Baines, who kindly took this photo, as well as some more that he has put on Flickr.

It was a great evening and we’re really proud to have got this far. Now, as well as recovering, we’re getting on with the real reason for being here: printing.

We’re also making some progress with our Monotype installation. All our equipment is here, or nearly all of it, and the machines have been wired in. The next big step is getting the plumbing done. Meanwhile we’re making an inventory of our matrices.

We bought forty cases of metal type and borders, a good range of new Old Face Open in packets and twenty-nine cases of wood letter along with the Monotype. We plan to proof them up over the coming weeks.

Monotype at Hand & Eye

We’re pretty busy at the moment. As well as printing Christmas cards we’re getting ready for a new challenge. On 17 December we’re installing our own Monotype casters. We expect that it’s going to take some time before we’ll have learnt enough to run them commercially, but we believe they’re going to open up exciting possibilities.

At present we’re booking movers and electricians prior to re-organising the workshop. Once we have the machines in we’ll be putting together a list of the matrices we hold and starting to get to grips with type casting.

Art Workers Guild Christmas Fair

We will have a stand at the Fair where we’ll be selling our Christmas cards, posters and books. We hope to see you there.

In the public eye

Our friends at Ben Pentreath Ltd tell us that Someone Famous has bought a copy of our Always Do Sober poster. We are, of course, far too discrete to tell you who it is, but even we know that their name is frequently to be found in the tabloids.

Our entry about that poster attracted the comment that the quote is from Ernest Hemingway. We agree that the link provided does show that, but the book from which we got the quotation clearly says it’s Twain. The clincher for us is that it sounds much more his style.

Bridie in Ben’s shop had told us that Tutti Frutti was going to be in this month’s Vogue. This week we broke the habit of a lifetime and bought a copy but there was no picture of our poster. The magazine are, we hear, getting hell over the omission.

Meanwhile we have been contacted by the Financial Times’ How To Spend It Magazine. After seeing our books, posters and Christmas cards they decided to show our Xmas Christmas card. They say it will be in their 21 November edition. The card is one of seven designs we have in our store.

Our last post was about the Reynolds Stone prints we had done. We’ve seen the exhibition now, and it’s terrific. It’s on until 21 November.

Reynolds Stone

Millions of Britons know at least one piece of work by Reynolds Stone. The coat of arms on the front of the United Kingdom passport is his work. He died thirty years ago, so the design is extremely durable.

This year is his centenary, and we’ve just printed an edition of ten of his wood engravings. We’re very excited.

The prints will be part of an exhibition at Sophie Schneideman Rare Books, 331 Portobello Road, London W10 5SA. It will be open Tuesdays to Fridays 11-4, Saturdays 10.30-6 from the 6th to the 21st November. Other times by appointment (07909 963836) or chance.

Insectissimo

Insectissimo is the third in our Paw Prints series. Once again it is written by Holly Skeet. The pictures by Chris Brown have been printed direct from his lino blocks.

We’ve put it in our ebay shop listed as a children’s book. It wasn’t easy to decide on a category, as we think it will be loved by people of all ages. A friend lent her copy of Circus Minimus, its predecessor, to her grown up daughter, who didn’t want to give it back.

Mark Twain poster

Mark Twain is a bit of a hero around here. He’s best known as a writer, of course, and a great one. We really like his description of his time as a cub pilot on a Mississippi steamboat.

Less well known is that one of his first jobs was as a compositor. He found it such drudgery that he later invested a lot of money in a type setting machine. Sadly for him his investment wasn’t a good one.

He was also a wit, of course, and when we found this quote we couldn’t resist it.

As usual, you can find this in our ebay shop.