The Book, The Whole Book, and Nothing But
Book Launch
Earlier this year, a letter arrived at Incline Press from the Society of Bookbinders letting me know I had been given their bi-annual Lifetime Achievement Award. Wisely, they advised that any speech I might give at their annual conference dinner in August, should be short. I proposed instead, to 'speak' through a keepsake to be given out at the event, but as these things tend to do at Incline Press, what started as ephemera, evolved into a pamphlet and eventually half of this book.
A similar process had recently occurred with an essay intended for the kind folk who helped us get the Arab press back. This evolved into an account of Graham's 'apprenticeship' as a letterpress printer in the late 1960s and ends with Mr Taberer and the story of how his printing press first came to Incline. Together, they are something of a compact printers autobiography, and capture a little of my passion for decently made books.
Decorated with illustrations showing the various stages of book making by Jost Amman, and a few other images of the Arab Press, the book is printed on Zerkall Butten and covered in yellow marbled papers commissioned from Claire Hooson of Marsh Marbling, and bound inhouse. The edition is 225 copies with 80 reserved as loose sheets for binders. The book is set in Scotch Roman type with a little Caslon for display, which is also used in the Society of Bookbinders 50th Conference keepsake which is tipped in.
The Society of Bookbinders 50th Anniversary Conference
We had a fabulous time at the two day Society of Bookbinders conference weekend, selling a wide range of our books that we like to make available in unbound sheets for binders to decorate in their own styles. The Society laid on a fantastic range of lectures, events, dinners and the exhibition, with binders across the world winning prize after prize.
Incline Press sponsors the Dave Godin Memorial Award for Animal Free Binding, which was won this time by Fenneke Wolters-Sinke who is based in Scotland.
The Lifetime Achievement Award
The third Society of Bookbinders Award was presented by Dominic Riley on behalf of the organisation at the conference dinner.
'When I became President of this Society, I only did a couple of new things. The one that was most important to me was to try inventing and presenting a new award. This was approved and it is called 'the Cobden Sanderson Award for Lifetime Achievement' for a very good reason. Many of us in this room would not be here if it were not for Cobden Sanderson and of course William Morris. The Morris project, and Cobden Sanderson was deeply involved, was to rescue craft from the encroachment of industry, and nobody did that better than our ‘Grandfather’, Tom Cobden Sanderson.
I chose him because I wanted someone who we could almost reach in time. He died the same year that our great patrons Bernard Middleton and Ivor Robinson were born, 1924. And its important to name this award after him because unlike many at the time, he collaborated closely with many others, the papermakers, printers, calligraphers, artists, type foundries, electro engravers, ink makers – the list goes on; so we who proudly celebrate the arts and crafts in this country can see in Cobden Sanderson the embodiment of all the book arts.
And so this award is given to somebody from any one of these various fields that feed into our work, not just book binders alone. The first recipients were Griffin Mill, our great paper makers; the second recipient was Jim Brockman. Tonight I am delighted to announce the new recipient who is a printer and binder who has been working at this for some thirty-five years, who embodies in the very fibre of his being what we are here to do, which is to bring light into a dark world through the power of the printed word, dedicated to freedom of speech and democracy, and the beauty of the handmade book.
So I would like to welcome and present him with the Sam Feinstein bow-tie which is what you get with this award: Graham Moss of Incline Press.'
Currently on the press (and other news)
Our next job is printing the New Year Book, which is the annual gift to our subscribers. We shall be setting a poem on some wonderful hand made paper by Two Rivers from 1998, just re-discovered in the basement.
We like to travel across the UK to share our wares at the fine press book fairs, otherwise known as 'putting yourself about', and to drink coffee and eat cake with our peers. We hope to see some of our readers soon at the Brockenhurst Wayzegoose on the 29th of September and the Ludlow Fine Book Fair on the 26th-27th of October.
Incline Press is known for its enthusiasm for adding free items of ephemera to orders, and these comp slips are the latest. We have been unearthing (almost literally) some type found in the basement which turned out to be Kingston Bold, a Stephenson & Blake foundry type of ancient vintage and probably quite rare now. Art Deco typefaces have hardly stood the test of time. Look out for these notes of thanks with your orders.