Ross' Modern American Usage

It’s Fine Press Friday!

This week’s fine-press examples are from former British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes’s collection of poems Earth Dances, with original linocuts by British artist R. J. Lloyd and printed in 1994 in an edition of 250 copies signed by the poet and artist in 18 point Bembo and Bodoni on Rivoli paper by Nicolas McDowall at The Old Stile Press in Llandogo, Monmouthshire, Wales. The main images were printed on papers handmade by Frances McDowall (as are the papers for the cover) which incorporate iris, nettle, onion, Japanese knotweed, pampas grass, and alkanet fibers. The binding was designed at The Old Stile Press and executed at The Fine Bindery in Wellingborough, England.

Hughes and Lloyd became friends late in their lives, and Lloyd had the opportunity to illustrate four of Hughes’s books. This edition was completed four years before Hughes’s death. The Old Stile Press was started by Frances and Nicolas McDowall in 1979. Although Nicolas died last month and Frances passed in 2019, the work of the press continues under the direction of their daughter Cressida Maher. Our copy of Earth Dances is a gift from our friend Jerry Buff.

It is now Halloween