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Case 5 : The Nineteenth Century Fine Printing Renaissance
Exhibition curators: Hugh Cahill, Lucy Gosnay and Katie Sambrook
Every aspect of book production was transformed by the Industrial Revolution. The manufacture of paper, type and printer's ink, the printing press itself, the materials and technique of binding - all were profoundly affected by technical innovation. The mechanisation of printing enabled publishers to meet the demands of their expanding market, as literacy spread, mass education was introduced and the book-reading public embraced the growing urban and lower middle classes.
Despite and perhaps because of this sea change, the nineteenth century also witnessed a renaissance in the art of fine printing. In the early years of the century Thomas Bewick pioneered the revival of wood engraving, while in the late Victorian period William Morris, reacting against what he saw as the ugliness of mass-produced books, founded the Kelmscott Press in conscious emulation of the early Italian printers.
Thomas Bewick. History of British birds. Newcastle: printed by Edward Walker, for T. Bewick, 1804.
Early Science Collection QL690.G7 BEW
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| Green finch, from: Thomas Bewick. History of British birds. Newcastle: printed by Edward Walker, for T. Bewick, 1804. [Early Science Collection QL690.G7 BEW] |
Thomas Bewick (1753-1828), the son of a Northumberland tenant farmer and collier, was largely responsible for the revival of the delicate art of wood engraving and for its gradual supplanting of copperplate engraving as a means of book illustration. Wood engravings are made by incising the design on the end-grain of a wooden block and can be printed in the same press as a book's textblock, thus enabling a unity of both production and design that had been absent in the age of copperplate engraving.
Apprenticed to Newcastle engraver Ralph Beilby, Bewick combined artistic genius with consummate technical skill and a sound business sense. Throughout his life he had a deep love of the English countryside and a passionate interest in natural history, both reflected in his best known and most successful work, the two-volume History of British birds. The success of this work was mainly due to the outstanding quality of the illustrations. Their close attention to detail satisfied the naturalist, while the evocative depiction of the birds' habitats made the book an inspirational work for the many contemporary readers who shared the Romantic poets' attachment to the natural landscape.
Just as important as the illustrations of the birds themselves are the tail-pieces which follow each description. Some are straightforward depictions of rural scenes or activities (farmyards, snowy fields, cats, men fishing or ploughing); some show a sometimes dark sense of humour (a man urinating against a tree, a boy leading a blind beggar past a sign warning of man-traps); others suggest a melancholy romanticism. Readers of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre will remember how in the novel's opening chapter Jane, then a child of ten, lost herself in the contemplation of these evocative engravings:
I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quiet solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a low wall, and its newly-risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide … Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting …
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| Tail-piece from: Thomas Bewick. History of British birds. Newcastle: printed by Edward Walker, for T. Bewick, 1804. [Early Science Collection QL690.G7 BEW] |
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Emus, depicted in: Zoological Society of London. The gardens and menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated. Chiswick: printed by Charles Whittingham, 1831.[Early Science Collection QL76.5.G7L6 ZOO] |
Zoological Society of London. The gardens and menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated. Chiswick: printed by Charles Whittingham, 1831.
Early Science Collection QL76.5.G7L6 ZOO
The influence of Bewick's History of British birds is plainly discernible
in this work printed at the Chiswick Press by Charles Whittingham the elder
(1767-1840) in 1831. By this time the use of wood engraving as a means of book
illustration was well established and Whittingham, in partnership with the publisher
John Sharpe, printed a number of reasonably priced small-sized illustrated books
aimed at the growing urban middle-class market. Whittingham was an innovative
printer, eager to make use of the latest technical advances. He was one of the
first printers to install an iron press, capable of printing an entire sheet
at a single impression, at his premises. He was also largely responsible for
the introduction of the overlay in the printing process; this was a piece of
thin card which was pasted to the tympan (the part of the printing press between
the platen and the sheet of paper to be printed) so as to achieve a more consistent
pressure of ink to paper across the surface of the wood block. Whittingham is
also believed to have manufactured his own ink.
The Zoological Society of London was founded in 1826 by Sir Stamford Raffles.
Its Zoological Gardens, the world's first scientific zoo, were inaugurated two
years later in London's Regent's Park.
William Shakespeare. The poems of William Shakespeare: printed after the original copies of Venus and Adonis, 1593. The rape of Lucrece, 1594. Sonnets, 1609. The lover's complaint. Hammersmith, Middlesex: Kelmscott Press, 1893.
Rare Books Collection PR2841.A2EL5
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| William Shakespeare. The poems of William Shakespeare: printed after the original copies of Venus and Adonis, 1593. The rape of Lucrece, 1594. Sonnets, 1609. The lover's complaint. Hammersmith, Middlesex: Kelmscott Press, 1893. [Rare Books Collection PR2841.A2EL5] |
William Morris (1834-1896) founded the Kelmscott Press in 1891 after hearing an inspirational lecture on printing given by his friend Emery Walker. The Kelmscott Press went on in its turn to provide the inspiration for the private press movement, further firing the growing interest of the time in fine printing and typography. The defining influence on Morris was the craftsmanship of the early Italian printers. The productions of the Kelmscott Press reflect the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement: that something whose prime purpose is functional can also be a work of art. Morris paid meticulous attention to all aspects of book production. Only the finest materials were used and the design of every page and opening was carefully considered. Ironically enough, given Morris's socialist beliefs, this inevitably placed the productions of the Kelmscott Press beyond the purchasing power of all but the wealthy collector.
The Century Guild Hobby Horse. London: Chiswick Press, 1884-1892.
Rare Journals Collection
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| Title page of: The Century Guild Hobby Horse. London: Chiswick Press, 1884-1892. [Rare Journals Collection] |
The Century Guild Hobby Horse was one of the most influential of the many literary and artistic journals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Founded as the mouthpiece for Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo's Arts and Crafts organisation, the Century Guild, in 1884, it initially received bad reviews and did not appear again until 1886. The Hobby Horse had a considerable influence on the private press movement, as it placed a high value on the art of printing. Mackmurdo had conceived the Century Guild with the aim of bringing together the artist and the printing trade. Contributors to The Hobby Horse included William Michael Rossetti, Oscar Wilde, Matthew Arnold and Ford Madox Brown. The magazine was edited by Herbert Percy Horne, an architect, designer, writer and poet and a member of the guild.
On display are the front cover, with a woodcut vignette of a knight, and the
title page, designed by Selwyn Image.
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