#wingate studio

Born July 30, 1818, Emily Brontë gave the world one of its most haunting, hypnotic love stories with Wuthering Heights, her only novel, and a masterpiece that has thundered through literary history like a storm over the Yorkshire moors.

To celebrate her birthday, we’re turning the pages of the 1993 Limited Editions Club release of Wuthering Heights, designed, set in Monotype Dante, and printed by Michael and Winifred Bixler in an edition of 300 copies. The lithographs were printed by Bruce Porter of Trestle Editions and chine colléed at Wingate Studio.

The volume features fifteen brooding lithographs and an afterword by the artist Count Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, better known as Balthus (1908-2001). Captivated by the Yorkshire moors during a visit in his youth, Balthus was haunted by their wild beauty. At just 25, he created a series of drawings inspired by Brontë’s enthralling novel. His haunting, mysterious illustrations bring Brontë’s gothic vision to life in shadow and ink…romantic, unsettling, and utterly timeless.

Today, we raise a windswept page in honor of Emily Brontë—poet of passion, sister of literary giants, and dreamer of dark, eternal love.

Happy Birthday, Emily Brontë!

-View more from The Limited Editions Club.

It’s Fine Press Friday!

This week we bring you The Bottom of the Harbor, by the The New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell, with photos by by celebrated American photographer Berenice Abbott, printed by Wild Carrot Letterpress on a paper made at Cartiere Enrico Magnini, and published in 1991 by the Limited Editions Club in an edition of 250 copies signed by the author. The six stories that comprise the book were first published in the The New Yorker, and then first published as a collection by Little Brown in 1959. The collection has been recognized as Mitchell’s best and most “elegiac account of New York,” featuring his distinctive focus on the everyday underdog characters of New York City.

Berenice Abbott spent her career documenting New York City as it underwent massive changes, particularly in the 1920s and 30s when millions were immigrating to the United States through Ellis Island. Abbott’s and Mitchell’s works are complementary as they both focused on often overlooked places and people, emphasizing the importance and beauty of the small things.

The photographs are produced here in photogravure by American photogravure printmaker Jon Goodman. Photogravure allows a photographic image to be printed in intaglio. These images were produced using the original negatives taken by Abbott. The result is a rich velvety tonal image that is fully integrated into the paper though the extreme pressure used in the printing process.

Goodman’s photogravure plates were printed by Sara Krohn and Wingate Studio on handmade paper. The text was set by Michael and Winifred Bixler in Monotype Bell. Our copy is a gift from our friends Megan Holbrook and Eric Vogel.

View other posts on books published by The Limited Editions Club.

View more Fine Press Friday posts.

Birthday Anniversary - Frank O’Hara, born March 27, 1926

Today is Frank O’Hara’s birthday so we thought we’d celebrate by sharing a collection of his work, Poems, published by the Limited Editions Club in 1988 featuring original lithographs by Willem de Kooning. 

O’Hara became famous as a poet in the New York School, an informal group of writers, artists, and musicians working in New York. His poetry is well known for its conversational or casual style and for capturing scenes of life in New York. Also an art critic and curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O’Hara was friends with many artists including Willem de Kooning. 

The poems featured here are titled “A Young Poet” and “America,” respectively. These images don’t give a sense of the full size of the book, which is 56cm tall (22 inches), and bound in soft black leather. The book was issued in a limited edition of 550 copies and is signed by the artist. 

Walton Ford. Pestvogel. six color aquatint etching with hard ground, soft ground, spit bite, sugar lift, and dry point. 40 x 30.75 inches. edition of 65. 2016.

Pestvogel is the 13th collaborative print between Walton Ford and Wingate Studio, published by Kasmin Editions. 

The print depicts a flock of Bohemian waxwing birds feasting on blackberries as a battle blares in the distance. Such an occurrence was common for this bird, as they have been known to take on continent-wide migrations during inexplicable times. The birds’ arrival once acted a sinister omen -- an old name for these birds (which is the current name in Dutch) is Pestvogel, or “plague bird.” Waxwing birds were largely recorded during the winter of 1913/14, perhaps acting as the cue for the first World War. 

This print is now featured in our current exhibition, Animal Kingdom.