Proofing Press
The Centre has been fortunate in being able to purchase a Farley proofing press. With its large sized bed it enables us to print slightly bigger than A2; this is double the size previously available. Until now, we have been unable to print from much of the larger wooden type that the University holds, so this represents a major step forward in our aim to print contemporary broadsides and larger scale pages for case and pamphlet binding.
Caslon
John Randle at Whittington Press (whose archive is held by the University) has cast for us some of the long unavailable large-composition sizes of Caslon from the matrices inherited from Oxford University Press in 1985. Monotype’s recutting of Caslon was virtually identical to the characters cut by William Caslon in the eighteenth century. This then represented an unusual opportunity for the Centre to acquire some of the most beautiful fonts cut by this country’s greatest typefounder. Amongst the more usual 18 and 24-point sizes is the (almost unique?) 22 point Caslon. ‘It is most unlikely that this superb typeface from the early eighteenth century will ever be cast again’ – Ian Mortimer 1991
Relocation
The Centre will be relocating this summer from our current home in Pittville Studios. We aim to make the Centre’s resources available to students and staff once again in September ’11 within the printmaking facility at Francis Close Hall. An evening of brief typographic talks and demonstrations will accompany the re-opening.
Gift from Printing Museum, Cockermouth, Cumbria
The centre has recently acquired a significant amount of metal and wooden type from the Printing Museum at Cockermouth, Cumbria. The type was presented by Jeremy Winkworth a specialist restorer of print machinery whose father was curator of the museum. The gift substantially enhances the University’s letterpress facility and will enable the Centre to fulfill its stated aim of providing letterpress printing to a very high standard, of benefit to future researchers and existing students at all levels.
Artist visits Damascus, Syria
Andrew Morrison worked in Damascus in March 2010 for three weeks. The trip was funded by the Arts Council and Creative Communities of Surrey to foster links between designers and craftsmen in Syria and the UK. Through the British Council Andrew was introduced to RAWAFED, the Syrian development trust for culture who have offered their support in staging possible future exhibitions and exchanges. Andrew also had the opportunity to interview a wide range of Damascene fine and applied artists, designers and architects. It is hoped that the research centre can strengthen and further these links, exploring specifically the type-orientated fields of printmaking, calligraphy and letter carving and the influence, in both cultures, of the of the written or drawn word upon design disciplines such as textiles and metalworking.
Andrew Morrison: Artist in Residence at Shandy Hall
Andrew Morrison was invited to be artist in residence in May 2010 by the Laurence Sterne Trust based at Shandy Hall, Coxwold, York the former home of Sterne, author of the 18th century novel Tristram Shandy.
The exhibition ‘One Previous Owner’ held at the Hall during May 2010 displayed historical and contemporary books including Francis Drake’s ‘Eboracum’ and volumes from the library of Virginia Woolf, that contain evidence of previous possession. The exhibition was inspired by Andrew Morrison’s book of that name.
The Research Centre for Typography and Authorial Design’s concern for the book as object, for non-linear narrative and typographic experiment complements both the Trust’s and the present custodian Patrick Wildgust’s interests and exhibition policy.