Cobden-Sanderson autograph letter

COBDEN-SANDERSON (T.J.) Autograph letter signed, to Messrs Merratt (?) & Hughes, dated 30 April 1900.Two sides of a single sheet of Doves Press headed notepaper. The script somewhat faded. A little dusty. C.-S. accepts that, despite a misunderstanding, his correspondents' order for a copy on vellum of The Ideal Book was received and acknowledged before the order book was closed and, the stock being exhausted, proposes to supply them with his own copy. Sold.

Jan Tschichold, Typographische Gestaltung, Basel, 1935

TSCHICHOLD (Jan) Typographische Gestaltung. Basel: Benno Schwabe & Co., 1935. First edition. 8vo. Pp.112 + [10] (adverts). Numerous illusts, some partly in colour, including reproductions of work by El Lissitsky, Moholy-Nagy et al. Orig. blue cloth, printed spine label. Spine faded. V.g. Bookplate of Alan Dodson. Sold.

Some line blocks from designs by Berthold Wolpe (2)

Further to my post of the 13th July, here are the blocks which I thought might be from Magna Carta (Guyon House Press, 1938, Osley 83). They're not. If by chance you recognise them, please let me know.

Some line blocks from designs by Berthold Wolpe

I spent most of yesterday afternoon in the company of Paul Nash, at his Strawberry Press which he operates at his home in Moreton-in-Marsh. We were proofing some old line blocks, zincos, which had belonged to the former Oxford University Printer Vivian Ridler. They are from the designs of his friend Berthold Wolpe and are mostly book illustrations and decorations. Some of the thirty blocks are badly corroded but only one was so bad as to make identification hard, and we were pleased to find that the majority would still yield acceptable impressions. It's unlikely that any of them were made after about 1950.
   Two of the blocks have marks indicating their origin and these point to two groups which are easy to identify by reference to A.S.Osley's catalogue Berthold Wolpe: A Retrospective Survey (V.& A.Museum and Faber, 1980). One group are illustrations for a cookery book produced just after the war, F. Le Mesurier's Sauces, French and English: Sixty-Five Classic and Traditional French and English Sauces (Faber, 1947, Osley 89), a prospect which must have been quite extraordinarily mouth-watering in 1947. Another group are among the twelve drawings Wolpe made to decorate the Collected Poems of Walter de la Mare, first published in 1942.
   One or two blocks may be even older, being (I think) head- and tail-pieces for Noel Denholm-Young, Magna Carta and other Charters of English Liberties printed in 1938 by Vivian Ridler under the imprint of Theodore Besterman's Guyon House Press. This was the first printed book to use Wolpe's Albertus type. It's very scarce, not least because over half the edition of 250 copies were destroyed in the Blitz.
   Only a few blocks are signed. One of these is about Penguin Books and must have been made for the Double Crown Club. But what's the date? Was it for a menu?

I think the drawings for Sauces, French and English are delightful. Here are three:

And Paul at his Vandercook:

Bodoni's Preface to the Manuale Tipografico

BODONI (G.B.) Preface to the Manuale Tipografico of 1818. Translated by H.V.Marrot.  London: The Lion and Unicorn Press, 1953. One of 60 copies printed. Pp. 64 + 16 facsimiles. Engr. portrait. Orig. printed boards. Cover label. The first book from the private press of the Royal College of Art. £75

Uppercase, no.5,1961

Uppercase, no.5. Ed. by Theo Crosby. Whitefriars Press, 1961. 18 x 14cm. Pp. 64, [56]. The final number. In two parts: a group of articles on the work of the Hochschule fur Gestaltung in Ulm, and 'Portrait of Southam Street', social documentary photographs by Roger Mayne (1929-2016). Orig. semi-stiff boards, very slightly worn. This was the first appearance of Mayne's celebrated Southam Street photographs. They can now be set beside Alan Johnson's remarkable memoir of growing up there, This Boy  (2013). £200

Typographica, no.1, 1949

Typographica [first series], no.1. Ed. by Herbert Spencer. Lund Humphries, 1949. 4to. Pp.25. Illusts. Orig.printed wrappers. A little spotted. Includes Konrad Bauer on Ernst Schneidler, and John C.Tarr on 'The Use of Space' in typography. Scarce. Sold.

Henry Hill Ltd, Catalogue of Types, Bristol, c.1935

HILL (Henry) Ltd. [Printers] Catalogue of Types. Bristol: 11 John Street. N.d. [c.1935]. 4to. Pp.[vi], 27. Printed in black and red. Printed wrappers (a little dust-soiled). Striking geometric cover design. The 'examples of our work' at the end include a letterhead for Douglas Cleverdon's Charlotte Street bookshop.

Three specimens of Rudolf Wolf's typeface Memphis, c.1935-37

STEMPEL (D.) AG, Schriftgiesserei. Memphis  [together with] Fette Memphis  [and]  Memphis Luna. Frankfurt a.M., n.d. [c.1935-37]. 3 vols. 4to. Each c.8pp. Complex folding, multi-coloured specimens of this type-face designed by Rudolf Wolf. Sold.

Bauer Beton

BAUER TYPE FOUNDRY Bauer Beton. Designed by Heinrich Jost. New York: N.d. [c.1934]. 4to. Pp. [32] (four large folding). Orig. printed boards. Slightly worn. Printed in Germany. Designed by Imre Reiner. Sold.

Bonnewell & Co.

BONNEWELL & Co. [Printers' Suppliers & Wood-Letter Manufacturers]  Advertisers' Blocks & c. [London:] 76 Smithfield, EC. N.d. [c.1865]. Broadsheet, 510 x 652mm, printed in red and black. Marginal wear but apparently without loss of text. Laid down onto a blue board and framed. The pattern of the original folds suggests that this sheet might have come from a larger catalogue. Rare. Sold.

Two early specimens of Rudolf Koch's typeface Prisma

KLINGSPOR (Gebr.) Schriftgiesserei. Prisma. Eine neue Versal-Schrift nach Zeichnungen von Professor Rudolf Koch.  [together with]  Prisma. The new design of Rudolf Koch. Offenbach a.M. & London, c.1930-31. 2 vols. 8vo & landscape 8vo. Pp.[8] + 12 loose pieces of ephemeral printing in pocket at end; large folding title, pp.[8] + 9 pieces. Orig. semi-stiff boards. Printed in Germany at the foundry, in black and colours. The specimen in English slightly age-embrowned and very slightly worn. Uncommon. Koch's extraordinary decorative exploration of his sanserif Kabel. Sold.

Bristol & Carlton, Amsterdam Type Foundry, c.1932.

AMSTERDAM TYPE FOUNDRY Bristol & Carlton. Elegant and Modern. London: John MeerlooCo. [Agents], c.1932. 4to. Pp. [12]. Printed in black and colours. Orig. silver cloth-textured boards printed in black and blue. Price list laid in. Excellent. Display types designed by Dick Dooijes in 1929. Sold.

Type designed by Eric Gill and printed by Hague & Gill, High Wycombe, c.1935

HAGUE & GILL [Printers] Type designed by Eric Gill and printed by Hague & Gill. High Wycombe, n.d. [c.1935]. 4to. Pp. [12]. Printed in black and colours. Excisions, approx. 45 x 70mm from the top right-hand corner of two leaves, with small loss of headings, otherwise v.g. Orig. blue wrapper printed in black and red (slight mottling). Sold.

Bower & Bacon's Improved Specimen of Printing Types, Sheffield, 1832

BOWER & BACON [Typefounders] Bower & Bacon's Improved Specimen of Printing Types. Sheffield, 1832. 8vo. 2 leaves of prelims (title, price list), 158 leaves of specimens (2 folding) printed one side only, & 1 leaf (price list of cast ornaments). Possibly lacks one leaf, there being a stub following the price list, and most of the original tissue guards separating facing pages of letterpress have been removed. Still a handsome copy. Orig. green cloth boards, worn but sound. Bookplate of Vivian Ridler (1913-2009), Oxford University Printer 1958-78. Sold.