And because it’s out, a timeline cleanse. Still one of the most beautiful examples of typography ever, IMO!

Closer!

Staining in the magnificent 1905 Doves Press Bible—these stains, which appeared in pages of vol. 1 as a result of too little hanging space (and thus attempting to dry too many stacked sheets after printing, causing the sheets to stay damp overlong and discolor). Lamented by the printer.

Plates of William Morris’ designs for Morris & Co., and other parts of his career, reproduced in “The Art of William Morris” (1897—one year after Morris’ death), printed at the Chiswick Press.

Inventorying historical architecture books means lots of lovely 2nd half of 18th-early 19th century decorated book papers.

In action!

Shout-out to our department’s Cold Nose Illuminator (“Old”) which some random person made in their garage in the 1990s and we ended up with. No company-produced cold nose illuminator can live up to it. It is eternal and weighs about 30 pounds. Also includes ancient tic tac box with spare parts.

This morning: the lovely italic of Robert Estienne, one of the most important 16th-c. French printers. This book is a 1543 copy of Cato’s De Re Rustica.

Admiring the tangled glory that is this fifteenth-century binding. Sadly detached. One of the usual suspects.

Three gigantic fine press bibles today—Nonesuch (1924), Pennyroyal Caxton (1999), and Arion (2000) Presses. Pennyroyal and Arion are particularly interesting as they were published and produced within a year of one another.

Woodcuts/wood engravings I saw at work this week.

The Dance Magazine, July 1926. Pulled for a group of high schoolers doing a dance intensive summer program in OSU’s Dance dept. visiting us on Wednesday!

For your viewing pleasure, this beautiful “liber” in one of OSU’s newest manuscript fragments, copied in gorgeous Montecassino-style Beneventan script.

Unexpected encounter with an old friend today: looking at copies of William Morris’ works published by Longmans and printed at the Chiswick Press, 1901-2 and stumbled upon another major fine printer… in the circulating collection, no less. (Deep breaths)

Was delighted today to receive North Yorkshire-based @nepenthepress.bsky.social’s new “The Domain of the Pale Queen” by Benjamin Tweddell—absolutely gorgeous!

Summer project: finding things in the circulating collections that should be in special collections, and transferring them… aka searching “decorative cloth publishers’ binding” in the catalog and having fun :)

I’ve been thinking a lot about the influence of William Morris’ book design aesthetic on lower cost, commercial printing, and nothing sums this up so literally like the title spread from J. M. Dent’s initial run of the Everyman’s Library series, 1905-1910 (right. Left: Morris’ Kelmscott Chaucer.)

A few highlights from the NY Antiquarian Book Fair a few weekends ago…

Now that term is over, there is more time for collections research, which this week has meant Will H. Bradley’s weird and wonderful “Bradley, His Book”—a periodical from 1896-7 discussing typography, printing, publishing, etc. with many art nouveau illustrations by Bradley and his contemporaries.

A few of the sights from the Akron Antiquarian Book & Paper Show, not including the Nonesuch edition of William Morris’ selected writings that I walked away with.

OSU’s leaf of this Maghrebi Qur’an manuscript, formerly owned by the Lima Public Library (one of the primary recipients of Ege’s leaves).

The prospectus from the Grabhorn Press’ 1925 edition of Richard de Bury’s “Philobiblon” (a medieval text all about books) includes chapter 17, “Of handling books in a cleanly manner, and keeping them in order” with ironically, intentionally added fingerprints, laid in flowers, marginalia, etc.

The most interesting archival object of the week: this gorgeously printed silk propaganda cartoon aimed at Italian Americans, glorifying the US’s role in WW1. Presented by a student and discussed in the grad seminar on decolonization embedded in our department this semester.

Plant shopping in c. 1830s Japan! Woodcuts by Hasagawa Settan (長谷川雪旦, 1778-1843). In 江戶名所圖會, a collection of plates and description of the important places in Edo. In the Herman J. Albrecht Library of Historical Architecture, on deposit at OSU libraries.

Absolutely DEVASTATED and yet enthralled by this past librarian’s “conservation effort” which resulted in the marring of this most famous of cover designs and yet also yielded a very interesting book object

Notgeld—local currency made in Germany during the Weimar Republic.

Got our Audubon facsimile out for class as a reminder that size matters!

Other Rockwell Kent bookplate highlights:

Books + postcard + fabulous bookplate design I saw at work recently! book historians, chime in on printing technique of the postcard—would this be multicolor halftone? Traditional lithography? Also, descriptors for the style of the plaid bookbinding? Decorative paper boards…? Details in alt

First day back in office—mid-century printing and type catalogs. Could be worse!