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.

The return of Tutti Frutti

Tutti Frutti is back! We were thrilled with the response to the original print and both pleased and sorry that it sold out. Sorry because it was a limited edition, so nobody else could get it. We obviously couldn’t do a straight reprint, but we could do a new version, and that’s what we’ve done. The layout is changed, and Rosa chose a stunning new set of vibrant colours. What’s more, we haven’t signed or numbered them, so we’ve brought the price down.

Tutti Frutti is in our ebay store and at Ben Pentreath now, and Keep Calm will have it next week.

Internships

We’re amazed and gratified at the success of our internships.We thought they were a good idea – that’s why we started them – but we had no idea that they would be so popular. When we were taking bookings six months in advance we considered cutting each intern’s stay from two weeks to one, but the second week is usually considered really valuable.

Now we’re booked  up until the end of 2010. This is terrific, but it’s a little out of hand, so we’re not taking any more applications for the time being.

Hand & Eye onYouTube

When Leo Griffin was with as an intern in July he made a film of our Heidelberg cylinder press. This included locking his camera in a forme and running it in the press. Has this ever been done before, we wonder?