Alembic Press ~ England

Frying the Flag
By Lawrence Durrell
1994. Edition of 250

8 x 5.75" Set in Bodoni and printed on (suitable hairy) Zerkall paper. Illustrated with line drawings by John R. Smith. Single section booklet in card cover.

A short story by Lawrence Durrell about a letterpress printed English language newspaper hand set by "hirsute Serbians with hands like shovel," run in former Yugoslavia between the wars.
$25 (Last Copy)

A Border Specimen
By Claire Bolton
2000. Edition of 100

11 x 8" with 108 pages quarter bound in cloth with printed border patterned paper-covered boards.

This book displays all the Monotype single border units which have been cast by the Press from its collection of 355 matrices. With a brief introduction about the history of borders as well as a chronology of Monotype's border designs. Profusely illustrated with the Press's Monotype holding shown as one inch blocks as well as in lines and single units. The borders are shown as individual units, and then as single lines, but then also as patterned one inch squares which reveal some of the many textures achievable by rotating or combining the units. The main text also covers a short history of borders, and a chronology of Monotype's border designs and their release.
$250

Griffin Mill
By Christine Laver-Gibbs
Edition of 120.

6.5 x 10”; 44 pages. Letterpress printed from Garamond type on a special making of paper from the Mill. Quartercloth and patterned paper over boards.

The story of the founding and development of Griffin Mill. Sections include tales of the Mill in its various locations, plus brief histories of some of the commissioned papers, including those made for Canterbury Cathedral, the India Office, and a customer who wanted to reproduce a map of Asia by a noted cartographer on a paper that would replicate the character and behavior of the original. Also includes a section on watermarks, a glossary of technical terms, and numerous examples of the handsome papers produced at Griffin.
$125 (Last two copies!)

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The Pattern Poems of George Herbert
Twenty-one poems selected and introduced by Nick Page.
1997. Edition of 100.

12 x 18”; 60 pages. . Printed in Grotesque type on Zerkall mouldmade paper. Non-adhesive binding with decorative sewing on spine.

From the physical form of the stanzas to his play with words and verse, George Herbert's poetry is full of pattern. The seventeenth century poet took great delight in puns and word links and the shape of the words on the page. These selections, which offered a wonderful opportunity for typographic play, are printed in a sans serif type to allow patterns to show through more clearly. This is an exploration of patterns and structures implicit in Herbert's work, rather than a critical edition.
$85 (Last copy!)

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Specimens of Wood Type
By Claire Bolton
1993. Edition of 100.

Printed on Rivoli paper. Bound at the top (like an artist's drawing pad) with 3-hole interscrew binding in quarter cloth boards covered in Hahnemüle Bugra paper.

Large format wood type specimen book showing 46 fonts of wood letters plus ornaments in the Press' collection. To allow for repetition of the 26 letters of the alphabet and assorted punctuation and figures without causing visual stagnation, each page was designed as a poster. Identification of typeface and maker is given where known. Ink colors were mixed to add variety to and a change from the standard specimen-book black.

Featured in the Type section of the New York Public Library's Ninety from the Nineties: "For this printer's specimen book (in the truest sense), Claire Bolton of the Alembic Press used her cache of wooden types to print these specimens in the gaily colored inks used during the Victorian period."
$150 (Last copy!)