The Production Process
Letterpress
Letterpress was the first method invented of reproducing texts mechanically and was used in Europe from the fifteenth to the twentieth century. It involves the use of moveable type, the letters and other characters being cast in relief on a rectangular metal columns of regular height, and these assembled, or “composed”, with the necessary spacing to form a reverse three dimensional image of the words. The type surface is then locked in a frame, or “forme”, inked and stamped into paper by means of a press of some kind, from the simplest screw-down device to highly sophisticated rotary machines turning out hundreds of copies per minute. Despite major advances in the nineteenth and twentieth century in mechanical composition and speed printing, the whole system was overtaken first by offset litho, and latterly by computer-based laser systems greatly superior in definition, uniformity, and economy.
Why then would anyone now go to the trouble of printing letterpress? The answer lies in the fact that when inked type is stamped under pressure the ink is squashed to the outer edge of the image, giving a faintly darker outline; and at the same time the shoulder round the image caused by the impression reflects light in such a way as to make it seem detached from the surface. Also the processes of casting and composition result in slight accidental irregularities, so that once type had been distributed even the same type, reset and printed on the same paper, cannot produce exactly the same result. These characteristics may not be obvious with a light impression on smooth white paper, but with a deep impression on strong paper of colour and character the effect is to give a body and life to the text that no flat surface printing can reproduce.
Wood Engraving
From the earliest days of printing letterpress has been accompanied by illustrations made from blocks of wood the same height as and embedded with the type, in which an image has been formed by cutting away the areas which will appear white on the page. In the case of wood cuts this is done on the softer plank side of the wood, but it was found that much sharper detail could be achieved on the end grain of hard woods, typically box, using an array of fine cutting tools. This is wood engraving.
Resin blocks can now be used instead of scarce boxwood, but the techniques and effects are the same. To work out a design in reverse and control the varying tones and textures by differential hatching requires the utmost skill, so that there have not at any time been more than a handful of successful exponents of this art.
Bookbinding
The techniques of hand bookbinding have not changed in centuries. The printed sheets are folded to form a series of gatherings. Using an adjustable frame these are sewn by hand with a continuous thread to cords or tapes along the centre folds.
The pages can then open fully but remain locked tight, the exact opposite to the so called “perfect” binding used on modern paperbacks. The swelling caused by the threads is hammered out to form the rounded spine and rebate to take the thickness of the boards. It is usual in binding hand made or other fine paper to leave the foredge and lower edge uncut, but the top may be trimmed using a “plough”, which cuts along rather than across the page, and this may be gilt, or coloured and burnished.
Covering materials are leather, vellum, cloth and strong paper decorated by marbling or other techniques.
The leather has to be pared thinner along the fold-in edges and spine to be neat and flexible and to hide the joins with other materials, while the full softness and body of the grain remains on the flat surfaces.
Lettering and decoration (“finishing”) is applied by heated brass hand tools or by type and blocks in a heated press. This may be in gold, using pieces of real gold leaf, or “blind”, i.e. stamped direct with the hot tool which darkens and polishes the impression. Great skill again is required in this process.
There are many refinements and variations but these are the basic methods.
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