THE RAMPANT LIONS PRESS
Proprietor: Sebastian Carter
|
THE RAMPANT LIONS PRESS |
|
|
Proprietor: Sebastian Carter | ||
|
| ||
|
The Rampant Lions Press was founded by Will Carter in 1924, after an inspirational visit to the Oxford University Press at the age of eleven, and produced its first pamphlet after a decade of family jobbing printing. Will printed his first properly published book in 1936, and in 1949 he turned the Press into a full-time business, based in Cambridge. He was joined by his son Sebastian in the 1960s, and Sebastian took over the Press in 1991. It is based at his house in the village of Over, outside Cambridge. Apart from the Officina Bodoni in Italy, the Rampant Lions Press is the oldest family fine press in the world. The Press produces books by the traditional method of letterpress. That is to say, the texts are printed from metal type set by hand from the collection of historic types in the workshop, or set outside on a Monotype hot-metal typesetting machine, and then spaced out by hand in the workshop. When the books contain wood engravings they are printed from the wood blocks, often in colour. The papers used are mostly mould-made, often with the rough natural edges of the sheet – the deckle edges – left intact. But although the technology is traditional, the Press tries to use the hands-on directness which is its chief characteristic in a creative and sometimes experimental way.
|
|
|
|
|
Painting with type2007Six pictures designed by Sebastian Carter and set using geometric type ornaments which belonged to the German artist Hellmuth Weissenborn and date back to the 1920s. They are printed in three to five colours. The subjects are ‘In town tonight’, ‘The Swan’, ‘Sailing away’ (illustrated), ‘Peter Rabbit’, ‘The Reader’, and ‘Olympia’, the last a visual paraphrase of the painting by Manet. With a foreword. Printed on Zerkall mould-made paper and sewn into limp wrappers. 18 cm square. Typematter in Monotype Grotesque 215, with a display alphabet also composed of the Weissenborn ornaments. 180 signed copies. £32. |
 |
in the beginning2006In April 2004 the Rampant Lions Press published Wilfred Owen: Five poems. A new departure for the workshop, it consisted of six separate cahiers, each with its text accompanied by an image designed by Sebastian Carter and cut by hand in sheets of coloured Canson paper. In addition, extra colours were printed by silk screen. Because of the work involved, there were only 20 copies for sale, and the edition has sold out. Writing in The Private Library, Colin Franklin called it 'an extraordinary artistic success'. This new book is in a similar style, though the format is bigger. The text of in the beginning is the creation story from the first two chapters of the book of Genesis, and is taken from the King James version. It describes the seven days of creation, with a coda relating how ‘man became a living soul’. Each day, and the coda, is printed in a separate cahier, and each is illustrated with a multiple image sewn into the centre, cut in different colours of Canson Mi-Teintes paper, with some colours added by silk-screen and pochoir. The text is hand-set in 24pt Hunt Roman and printed on the last of the J Green mould-made paper from the Rampant Lions stock. The format is 38 x 29 cm. The eight cahiers are gathered in a printed chemise of blue Murillo board, inside a dark blue clam-shell box with printed labels. 25 copies, of which three are hors-commerce. £1000. ‘This is an extraordinarily thoughtful work of impeccable craftsmanship.’ Scott Krafft in Parenthesis 13. |
 |
In praise of letterpress2001 Ten broadsides in A4 format, with vivid and characteristic texts extolling the medium by many of the gurus of letterpress, from Joseph Moxon to Joseph Blumenthal, in a variety of settings, together with some more flamboyant displays. Each broadside is printed in two different colours, and a range of mould-made and hand-made papers is used, including some veteran Barcham Green specimens from the Rampant Lions stock. There is an introductory folder, and the whole is enclosed in a robust grey buckram clamshell box. In praise of letterpress was given a Judges' Choice Award at the 2001 UK Fine Press Book Fair in Oxford. 140 copies for sale at £85. |
 |
 |
|
A small pamphlet showing the eleven pressmarks we have used since Will Carter's first booklet in 1934, listing the first use of each. There are two engraved by Reynolds Stone, printed from the wood blocks, two drawn by John Buckland Wright, and two each by Will and Sebastian Carter. The one by Harry Hicken used uniquely in The song of Solomon in 1937 is printed on the cover from the original linocut; in Portfolio One it was shown printed from a line block. The two others are by Kathleen Ockendon and Berthold Wolpe.
The papers are Bugra Butten alternating with cream Basingwerk Parchment, with Canson Mi-teintes for the cover. The format is 18 by 11cm. There are 200 copies for sale at £15.
|
|
Uniform with The Rampant Lions Press Miscellany (1988) and published to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the press as a full-time business, this Miscellany 2, like the first one, is a mixture of completed and projected work, and some pieces done just for the fun of it. A wide range of type and paper is used. There is a foreword describing the last decade's work at the Press, and a checklist of books printed 1988-97.
96pp. 26cm x 18cm. The regular edition in quarter cloth with boards covered in specially designed patterned paper, in an acetate wrapper. 225 copies at £100. The special edition is fully subscribed.
|
|
by Honoré de Balzac, with six aquatints by Thomas Newbolt, and translated by Peter Raby, 1997
Balzac's novella, first published in 1831, tells the story of the young Nicholas Poussin who visits an older painter whom he reveres, Maître Porbus. Through him he meets a supremely endowed but scarcely known artist, Frenhofer, who for ten years has been working on a painting which no one has seen. Frenhofer believes that he has almost succeeded in making the masterpiece as alive as the real world. The story tells how the two younger men are finally allowed to see the work and what they find.
The unknown masterpiece is a parable of the impossibility of perfection in art, but also a vivid and prescient account of the struggle towards truer representation. Cézanne, we know, was moved to tears by the story, and identified with Frenhofer. Picasso, too, famously illustrated it for Vollard. More recently, some of the themes were given new treatment in Jacques Rivette's film La belle noiseuse, with Michael Piccoli as Frenhofer in modern dress, and Emmanuelle Béart as his model.
This new translation has been made by Peter Raby. Raby's biographies of Harriet Smithson, the actress who inspired Berlioz, and of Samuel Butler, and his study of Oscar Wilde have been published to great accaim. His most recent book is on Alfred Russell Wallace, The Pioneer of Evolution (Chatto and Windus).
The text is accompanied by six life studies in rich aquatint by Thomas Newbolt. Newbolt's strong visionary paintings, which reach for their inspiration back to the powerfiul images of Goya and Daumier, have been exhibited in London and New York, and recently his large canvas 'Nocturne' was bought by the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio as a memorial of the 1995 Bosnian Peace Accord.
The format is 26cm x 18.5cm, and the text is printed in Times and Walbaum on Zerkall Antique mould-made paper. The six plates are tipped in.
The edition consists of
For a picture of one of Thomas Newbolt's aquatints click here (20K JPEG).
|
|
S P Tuohy, 1995
To commemorate the centenary of the opening of the St Bride Printing Library, off Fleet Street in London, on 20th November 1895, we are publishing a checklist of the writings of the present librarian, James Mosley. A draft of the list appeared in 1991 in the Bulletin of the Printing Historical Society, of which Steven Tuohy, the compiler, was editor until recently. It has now been brought up to date.
Over eighty items are catalogued, ranging in extent from book reviews to the recent magnificent accompanying book for the I M Imprimit edition of The Ornamented Types of Louis John Pouchée. As a coda, we are reprinting two of James Mosley's essays, on the conquering of the world by soldiers of lead, and the long s.
Illustrated. Printed on Hahnemuehle Laid, 25x15.5cm. 32pp. Limp covers. £25.
|
|
by Sebastian Carter, 1993
'This book contains design solutions for eleven projected books, most of them posing complex typographical problems, such as interlineation and parallel texts; only one has an illustration. Through these projects the printer Sebastian Carter demonstrates the possibilities of expressive typography. Although these are intended to be classic fine press books, Carter steers away from the Golden Asses and Rubaiyats and comes up with an eclectic group of books and – given that they are all the same size and on the same paper – a surprising variety of approaches. The eleven spreads rampage off in all directions, employing some spectacular types and a great range of color that avoids the obvious rubrics of most fine press printing ... It may go without saying that the presswork and presentation of this book are outstanding, and the binding, in Cockerell marbled paper, is exquisite. The potential demonstrated and the fecundity of ideas in this book make it an important statement on the state of fine printing, and a hopeful indicator of where the private press book is going.' Bookways
With an introduction and notes on each spread. 31.5x25cm. Printed on Arches vélin and Fabriano Ingres. Quarter buckram, in a slip-case. 200 copies. £175.
|
|
by John Schroder, 1992
In 1970 the Rampant Lions Press published John Schroder's Catalogue of his extensive collection of material associated with Rupert Brooke, Edward Marsh and Christopher Hassall. This has been out of print now for some years. Now John Schroder has told the story of his collection, how his interest in Brooke was ignited and fuelled, and how it developed. It is full of insights into how to cajole material out of reluctant vendors, and presents a nostalgic picture of a kind of collecting by enthusiastic individuals which is becoming ever rarer.
Set in Monotype Baskerville and printed on Zerkall laid paper, with four pages of reproductions of manuscript material, bound in patterned paper covered boards. 25x15.5cm. 250 copies. £35.
|
|
by John Carey, with linocuts by Clare Melinsky, 1989
For a full colour picture of one of Clare Melinsky's linocuts click here (47K JPEG).
This is not a how-to-do-it book, but a why-to-do-it one. In his delightful essay John Carey, a dedicated vegetable gardener who in his spare time is Merton Professor of English Literature at Oxford and chief book reviewer for The Sunday Times, examines the blend of puritan work ethic and sensuous delight which drives otherwise sane people to horticultural toil. The essay is illustrated with four beautiful three-colour linocuts by Clare Melinsky, showing the produce of the four seasons, plus a tail-piece. They are based on her own experience of running a small-holding in Dumfriesshire, and convey the same mixture of realism and pleasure as the text.
23x15cm. Set in Monotype Octavian; printed on Arches vélin, the illustrations from the lino. 480 copies bound in quarter cloth with patterned paper boards. £35.
|
|
by Samuel Beckett, 1987
An experimental treatment of a short Beckett text set on one line, with parallel passages and textual variants above and below, in a second colour.
48pp. 23x23cm. Printed on Zerkall Silurian. 300 copies bound in quarter cloth with specially designed patterned paper boards. A prospectus is available. £45.
|
|
by Samuel Johnson, with eight etchings by Denis Tegetmeier, 1984
188 copies hand-set in 24pt Bembo and printed on grey Hodgkinson mould-made paper, 32x23cm, in quarter cloth with patterned paper boards. A prospectus is available. £150.
|
|
by Jack Emery, with linocuts by Clare Melinsky, 1983
'Such a well judged and of course well-printed originality has always been a characteristic of the Rampant Lions Press ... a really refreshing private press excursion into constitutional history at one of its most dramatic periods'. Matrix
500 copies, 26x17.5cm, printed in 12pt Times on Zerkall Silurian irregular laid, with the illustrations printed from the linoleum blocks. Quarter cloth with specially designed patterned paper boards. A prospectus is available. £75.
|
|
written and illustrated with twenty-six copper plates by Anthony Gross, 1980
120 copies on Arches vélin; the plates printed at the artist's studio by Mary West. The format 32x25.5cm. Quarter morocco with cloth sides, with patterned endpapers designed by the artist, in a slip-case. A prospectus is available. £650.
|
|
Hand-set in Eric Gill's Golden Cockerel roman and printed on J Green mould-made paper. 34x23cm. 280 copies bound in quarter vellum with boards covered with a specially designed patterned paper. £175.
For orders accompanied by payment: books above £19 are sent post free. For others please add £2. Overseas customers please pay by sterling draft or add $10 to the current conversion rate to cover bank charges. Trade terms: 25%, 35% on six copies or more.
The Rampant Lions Press, 80 High Street, Over, Cambridge CB2 5ND, UK.
Telephone
+44 (0)1954 231 003
or you can e-mail us.
Copyright © Sebastian Carter 2004-2007.