Kynoch Press

Specimens of type in use at the Kynoch Press, Witton, Birmingham, 1934. 8vo. 22cm. Pp. 184 (including three loose supplements). Orig. brown cloth, blind-stamped. Unobtrusive rubber stamp to front pastedown and title. Some marginal fading. V.g. Sold.
   An attractive specimen highly praised by Ruari McLean in his survey of inter-war printers' type specimens (Signature NS, no. 4, 1948). 'Designed by Harry Carter...[and]...decorated with small wood engravings by Eric Ravilious. The book was cloth-bound and, sunk deep into the cover, was Stevens Shanks' Elephant type, an innovative treatment of a rare face which allowed the letters to be felt as well as seen. giving the type a third dimension, emphasising its physical as well as visual characteristics. It was a wholly typographic cover produced by a printer which liked to regard itself as a typographer's press.' Caroline Archer, The Kynoch Press: anatomy of a printing house 1876-1981, London & New Castle, 2000, p.36.