Private Press

プライベート・プレス / 1891–1930s / Style / Publishing and Editing

A movement answering industrialized printing: type, paper, composition and binding unified under one ideal, remaking the book as a total work of art.

Private Press — Kelmscott Press, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer 1896 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Kelmscott Press, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer 1896 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Private Press — Doves Press Bible 1903 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Doves Press Bible 1903 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

  • House-designed type
  • Handmade paper, hand presses
  • Margins designed by the spread
  • Illustration united with text

Best used for

  • Limited-run poetry and commemorative books designed whole, from paper to type
  • Publishing where the object itself must state the maker's convictions

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Dictionary entry

Type
One type throughout, with the fewest possible changes of size
Composition
Work by the spread, fore-edge and foot margins beating gutter and head
Material
Letterpress impression on handmade paper, red headings printed as a second pass
Caution
Borrowing only the decorated initials and the handmade paper leaves the text setting loose and yields an expensive antique looking pamphlet. Read it as a publishing movement about production, labor and quality.
Further study
Kelmscott Press / Doves Press / Ashendene Press

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https://indexstyle.org/styles/private-press
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