The Ideal Book or Book Beautiful; | A Tract on Calligraphy Printing and Illustration & On the Book Beautiful as a Whole
[Vancouver] Near Strathcona Park: HM, 2022 [in roman numerals]. Octavo, 23.9 x 16.7 cm. Cased in light blue paper over boards. Paper label to the spine, printed with the title in pale bronze ink. The upper and lower covers repeat (respectively) the opening and closing pages of Cobden-Sanderson’s tract. The text appearing on the covers was printed in pale bronze. All edges neatly trimmed. pp. [ll. 2: bank self-ends; pp. 2] 1-8 [4; ll. 1: inset sample leaf; ll. 3: blank self-ends]. A fine copy. “This is a facsimile of the Doves Press’ original edition (1900). That book was set by J.H. Mason and printed by H.Gage-Cole. This facsimile has been set using Robert Green’s digital version of the Doves type, with the same size, measure, and leading as the original, and printed from polymer plates. The paper has been dampened, & inked and printed by hand, just like the original. A few dozen copies have been run off at HM, simply to see how closely the original could be reproduced” (from the colophon). From a total edition of 38 copies. The present copy is number 17 of 25 copies containing an original Doves Press sample leaf. The sample leaf was inset and sewn next to a facsimile page printed by HM for comparison: “Copies 1-25 include a facsimile setting of the first page of ‘Note on a Passage in Anthony and Cleopatra’ (1913), facing a copy of the Doves original, for comparison. (A note about the Note: The Press did not have an italic type; when one was required, an italic from the foundry of Miller & Richard was used. The best substitute available for this experiment was Garamond)” (from the colophon). Laid in is a post script printed digitally on semi-gloss paper. Also laid in is a replacement spine label (three, in fact: to accommodate preference, the title was printed in three different sizes). Item #394
“Since I first heard about Robert Green’s adaptation of the Doves type, I thought that setting a Doves text with it, to be compared directly with the original, would be interesting. If anyone had done that, I wasn’t aware. The problem with my scheme was having enough copies of the same original to make up some kind of edition. In the fall of 2022 I decided to finally do it myself. I had several dozen copies of the Shakespeare ‘Note’ that would make a suitable exemplar. But to just set that would be a meager effort, so I also set The Ideal Book, a short text that had the added benefit of capturing Cobden-Sanderson’s thoughts, in all their grandiose verbosity.
From my perspective, the experiment was not a success. The digital font was noticeably thickened. I had anticipated this to a degree, and planned to print the polymer plates with minimal inking, so as not to amplify the thickening. I have, however, struggled with under-inking in the past, and was determined it would not happen here: these pages cannot be accused of being under-inked. I adjusted inking and impression from pull to pull as one can when using a handpress, and these pages show the best balance, so I’m comfortable laying the visual differences on the translation to digital. Which is not to suggest any shortcomings in Green’s work: I am sure every decision was made consciously and with intent. My experiment was simply to inquire how closely his version approximated the metal when used to print in the same manner (letterpress, by hand, on damp paper), and the pages printed at HM show the answer.” — Rollin Milroy, from the Post Script.
Out of stock