Matrix, A Review for Printers and Bibliophiles - Rare Book Insider
Matrix

Randle, John and Rosalind

Matrix, A Review for Printers and Bibliophiles

Andoversford & Risbury: Whittington Press, 1982 to 2020: 2020
  • $17,250
A mixed set of 38 volumes: Volumes 1- 36: Matrix 1 1985 reprint of 1981 Matrix 2 wraps regular 1982 Matrix 2 reprint deluxe 1993 Matrix 3 to 30 are all deluxe versions 1983-2012 Matrix 31 to 36 wraps regular 2012-2020 Plus deluxe Index for Matrix I to XXI. Except for Volume 2, the first 30 volumes are the deluxe issues with extra specimens, bound in morocco & marbled boards, slipcased. Beginning with Vol. 7 all the deluxe issues came with a separate portfolio of specimens. All are in fine condition. A treasure-trove of interesting material on private presses, wood engraving, type design, papermaking & decorated papers, letterpress printing, richly illustrated with numerous inserts and specimens. "Matrix is by now so well established," wrote Sebastian Carter in 2012, "that there is a danger that we may take it for granted. People in the future will look back in amazement at its riches. The majority of its illustrations are not reproductions, but the real thing. It is like visiting a group of collectors who keep bringing treasures out of drawers for our inspection --which we are then allowed to keep." See Parenthesis 44, pages 18-25.
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Eleventh Book of Specimens of Printing Types

Eleventh Book of Specimens of Printing Types

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Dorothy Lamour's Life as a Phrase Book

Dorothy Lamour’s Life as a Phrase Book

Janaczewska, Noëlle 13 x 18. A concertina of 11 triple gate-fold pages, which unfold to about 16 feet. Designed by Mike Hudson in a variety of type faces and illustrated with his multi-colored linocuts, additionally hand colored. There is a sheet of instructions on opening/ viewing the pages. Laid into a colorful pictorial cloth box. Fine copy of a fun book. The book is a typographic rendition of Janaczewska's play, in which actress finds herself in a poem instead of a movie, and marooned in a dingy Sydney hotel. To maintain the spirit of a performance, the book has a theatrical setting. Jarvis explains "the hotel room which appears on every one of the 11 gate-fold pages, was Dorothy's stage. Onto this stage various scenarios obliquely suggested by the text were introduced . a chessboard, a maze, a giant pineapple, a clapperboard and an overweight Ronald McDonald." Production required two years. Jadwiga Jarvis, the printer, wrote that the book "will stand as a testimony to what can be achieved by a private press -- providing its proprietors are on a suicide mission." No. 20 of 30 signed copies. The Wayzgoose Press (1985 - 2021) of Michael Hudson and Jadwiga Jarvis was "a fiercely independent, reclusive private press operating from the depths of Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, and its output was extraordinary by anyone's standards. They combined their individual professional design skills with techniques such as handset letterpress, wood engraving, linocut, photography, craft bookbinding and calligraphy.
  • $8,050
  • $8,050
FALLING TO EARTH

FALLING TO EARTH

Double Elephant Press. Kuch, Michael No. 3 of 6 "Making Copies" housed in 4 steel-walled cases. 11 1/2 x 15. *The book of 42 leaves: 14 poems printed letterpress and 21 etchings in color and b&w. Binding materials & colors suggest the former World Trade Towers. * The 14 poems written out by Kuch on handmade paper, signed. * Complete set of 21 preparatory monotypes, signed. * Complete set of dry points, signed. * Complete set of etched states, signed * Two original copperplates. One is the final etching in the book, "Vade in pace" -- 4 elephants saluting a departing parachute, with turtle in foregorund. * A watercolored sketch of this etching * A large, finished watercolor of the etching. Falling to Earth is an artist's and poet's reaction to the terrifying and tragic collapse of the World Trade Center Towers and to the ensuing bombing campaign. The book's imagery uses the metaphor of falling to look at the human and spiritual costs of violence. Mythological & biblical narratives are evoked in a modern framework that may give perspective to raw, recent events. Icaraus, Jacob's ladder, & parachuting Christs descend in our new millennium. The poems and etchings are frequented by angels providing vantage from above. In Falling to Earth Michael Kuch "hopes to unfold a kind of topographical map of healing." The edition is 100 copies (with 10 hors commerce). Text and binding papers were made in New York by Carriage House Papers and Dieu Donné Papermill; text printed by Art Larson in 14 point Emerson. Bound by Shoshannah Wineburg and Barry Spence.
  • $6,900
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A profile of the century in the life of the American Type Founders' Company (1895-2004)

A profile of the century in the life of the American Type Founders’ Company 1895-2004)

American Type Foundry •Annual Report of the ATF. 1895-1899, 1901-1904, 1915; By-Laws of ATF 1896; two misc. letter reports to stockholders 1891& 1901. The annual reports are in wraps and most are 8 pp. Much of interest about acquisitions and consolidations. Missing earlier reports for 1893 & 1894. Rare. No comparable group found. •American Type Founders Company. (Boston) April 1902. Printed wraps. Fine 52, ( 14) pages. A earlier version to the next entry (adding couple more foundries and new type faces), same general format and content. Celebrating their first decade. Rare. No copies located. •American Type Founders Co. Its Business and Resources Illustrated. (Boston) Sept. 1902. Printed wraps. 88 pages. Fine. In parts: Overview, Study of Modern Typefounding, Views of the Foundries, and Specimens of Distinctive American Type Styles (24 pp). Celebrating its first decade. 8 copies in OCLC. •Theo Rehak. The Fall of a ATF. A Serio-Comedic Tragedy. NJ, 2004. Fine inscribed copy with dj. The final 20 years. Theo joined ATF in the 1980s and turned out the lights some 20 years later. The implosion of a extraordinary 100 year old business (almost to the day). •Gregory Jackson Walters. (ATF) The Auction of the Century. Wraps. 15 page description of the auction -- as painful as the demise of ATF. With A Cursory Census of ATF Matrices (sold at the auction) 1996. 8 pp. •Photographic Views of Central Plant ATF.