#electrotypes

Typography Tuesday

Here are some arrangements of printer's flowers, a few electrotype cuts, and a wood engraving from Printing from Metal and Wood, handprinted in 1985 by English type and printing enthusiast Mark Arman at his Workshop Press in Thaxted, Essex, in an edition of 145 copies signed by the author/printer. Arman writes:

The purpose of this book is to illustrate and use different type faces , to experiment with those of the 19th century which today would be unfashionable, and to re-create an interest in those wood blocks, fleurons and electros, which were in use at the turn of the century. It is a book concerned with styles of printing and design which are no longer popular, but it is a book which owes its very existence to the author's delight in printing, type, layout and design.

Our copy of this book is another donation from the estate of our late friend Dennis Bayuzick.

View other books from the estate of Dennis Bayuzick.

View other posts on work by Mark Arman.

View other posts with type ornaments.

Typography Tuesday

Here are some typographic prints from LETTERpressworkBOOK by the noted book artist, letterpress printer, and educator James Trissel (1930-1999), printed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in an edition of 35 copies signed by the artist at The Press at Colorado College in 1997. The book developed from notes Trissel was making for a short course on letterpress printing. Each example offers a window on his approach to letterpress printing. Click or tap on the alt description of each image for a description of how each print is made..

Our copy is another donation from the estate of our friend Dennis Bayuzick.

View other books from the estate of Dennis Bayuzick.

View other posts with typographic prints.

Typography Tuesday

For today, a few Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts electrotype ornaments and borders from the type specimen book that keeps on giving, Specimens of Types & Borders and Illustrated Catalogue of Printers’ Joinery and Materials, published in London by the iconic H.W. Caslon & Co. in 1915. They kind of put us in a bit of holiday cheer (or at least as much as we can muster).

To learn more about this specimen book and H. W. Caslon & Co., view our previous posts on this catalogue.

Fine Press Friday 

Today we are presenting Random House’s 1943 edition of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. This edition was published as a two volume set with Emily Brontë‘s Wuthering Heights, both illustrated by the German-American illustrator and wood engraver Fritz Eichenberg (1901-1990). The illustrations are letterpress printed from electrotypes of the original wood engravings.  We are so grateful to acquire a second copy of this set as a gift from Kathy Grogan just this week, that we had to show off some of Eichenberg’s visual interpretations of Brontë‘s classic narrative. Thank you, Kathy!

Fritz Eichenberg, was born in Germany into a secular Jewish family. An outspoken critic of the rising Nazi party, Eichenberg moved with his wife and children to New York in the 1930s where he established his career as both artist and professor. Through his life he studied and practiced Taoism, Buddhism, and finally became a Quaker. He was a friend of Dorothy Day and contributed frequently to her newspaper, The Catholic Worker. Eichenberg was a prolific illustrator and “specialized in material with elements of extreme spiritual and emotional conflict, fantasy, or social satire, illustrating such authors as include Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Poe, Swift, and Grimmelshausen.”

Eichenberg’s visual style compliments Brontë’s literary style. One scholar has identified Charlotte Brontë as the "first historian of the private consciousness," and Eichenberg’s engravings seem to capture the emotional and psychological intensity evoked in her narrative prose.

This edition was planned by Richard Ellis and produced under his direction.  The composition and electrotyping were by Kingsport Press at Kingsport, Tennessee, and the printing and binding were by H. Wolff Book Manufacturing Company, New York

If you enjoy Eichenberg’s style, check out some of our previous posts that share the work of both Fritz and his wife Antoine, who was a book designer!

An Eichenberg Caturday!

The illustrations above were letterpress printed from electrotypes of original wood engravings by the German-American illustrator and wood engraver Fritz Eichenberg from the 1943 Random House edition of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.  

To learn more about this edition of Jane Eyre, check out this Fine Press Friday post. 

If you’d like to learn more about the artist/illustrator, check out previous posts we’ve done on Fritz Eichenberg.