Kelmscott Press
The Kelmscott Press, founded by William Morris and Emery Walker, published 53 books in 66 volumes between 1891 and 1898. Each book was designed and ornamented by Morris and printed by hand in limited editions of around 300. Many books were illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones. Kelmscott Press books sought to replicate the style of 15th-century printing and were part of the Gothic revival movement. Kelmscott Press started the contemporary fine press movement, which focuses on the craft and design of bookmaking, often using hand presses. While their most famous books are richly decorated, most Kelmscott Press books did not have elaborate decoration, but were published simply.
Morris was interested in medieval book design, visiting the Bodleian Library often with Burne-Jones to examine illuminated manuscripts. He designed and published several books before founding Kelmscott Press. Book dealers and designers complained about the poor quality of books published on the new rotary printing presses; Morris agreed that their quality was poor. After attending a lecture by Emery Walker on book design, Morris was inspired to collaborate with him on a new font of type, and their collaboration led to the founding of the Kelmscott Press, named after Kelmscott Manor, Morris's home in Oxfordshire.
File:News From Nowhere.jpg|thumb|320x320px|William Morris, News from Nowhere: Or, an Epoch of Rest ; Pequot Library Special Collections
Walker enlarged photographs of fine typefaces for Morris to trace and take inspiration from. Morris then drew his new font design at the enlarged size, which Walker in turn reduced. All three of Morris's fonts were created this way. Morris loved the aesthetics of 15th-century books and modelled his margins and spacing after them. He put smaller spaces between words and lines to create a block of text, and had large outer margins where he put shoulder-notes. Some Kelmscott books were heavily decorated with woodblock designs created by Morris. To create the look of an uninterrupted block of text, Morris sometimes printed poetry as prose. Kelmscott Press's most famous book was its edition of the complete works of Chaucer. The Chaucer contains 87 wood engravings by Edward Burne-Jones and many designs and initials by Morris. The book is considered a masterpiece of the fine press medium.
The Press closed shortly after Morris's death, but has exerted a huge influence on book production throughout the world.
Background
Before Morris founded the Kelmscott Press, he had a strong interest in book design. Morris and Burne-Jones both admired illuminated manuscripts, and visited the Bodleian Library often to admire them. They also admired the works of Chaucer and Dürer. Morris carefully studied the techniques of the illuminators and the woodblock carvers in hopes of reviving that type of craftsmanship. Morris had some experience in contributing to and designing books before he founded the Kelmscott Press. He designed and illuminated books by hand, starting in 1870 with an anthology of his own poetry, A Book of Verse. He designed as well as wrote The House of Wolfings and The Roots of the Mountains ; he also designed The Story of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue. He had plans to make a richly illustrated version of his epic poem, The Earthly Paradise. He abandoned the project, but surviving trial pages show that the typefaces and illustrations are "incompatible".Morris was not merely trying to replicate 15th-century printing practices. He preferred the iron hand-press of the 19th century to the medieval wooden ones, because the weaker wooden presses had to print on wet paper to get a print from a woodblock. Printing on wet paper weakened the press and subsequently, the book itself. Conveniently, iron hand-presses were still readily available in the 1890s. While modern rotary presses focused on speed and affordability, Morris did not. Some book dealers and designers disliked the newly popular, poorly produced books. Talbot Baines Reed, in an 1890 lecture on typography at the Society of Arts, complained that new typefaces were thin, harsh, and lacking dignity compared to old-face typefaces like Caslon and those of Nicholas Jenson. Morris expressed similar opinions.
Founding and history
Emery Walker, a book-collector, was friends and neighbours with Morris. In 1888, the Arts and Crafts Society sponsored several lectures including two by Walker on bookbinding and letterpress printing and illustration. His lecture included slides of books, including enlarged type to demonstrate good and bad book design. After the second lecture, Morris asked Walker to make a new font of type with him. Walker was initially skeptical, since he could not contribute capital. Walker told Morris where to buy high-quality tools and materials for printing, as well as where to hire skilled printers. In January 1891, Morris began renting a cottage near Kelmscott House, No. 16 Upper Mall in Hammersmith, which would serve as the first premises of the Kelmscott Press, before relocating to the neighbouring No. 14 in May, that same month in which the company was founded. The Kelmscott Press was named after Kelmscott Manor, Morris's home in Oxfordshire. While Morris did not pay himself any sort of salary, he usually broke even or made a little bit of money from the sales of Kelmscott Press books. Sales from smaller books, which were easier to produce and sell, supported production of folios and quartos. Morris organised outings for his workers and paid them above-average wages.After Morris's death in 1896, Cockerell and Walker finished the last five volumes of The Earthly Paradise and ten other titles. Some had already been started or were in planning stages at the time of Morris's death. They lacked the decorations that Morris usually created for Kelmscott books.
Design
While the Kelmscott Press is most well known for its large folio of the complete works of Chaucer, complete with many wood engravings, most of the books Kelmscott Press published were octavos that were not illustrated. Morris believed that any printer could improve their design by using old-style types and placing the page of type closer to the spine than the outside edge, as was the custom in 15th-century printing. Morris advised others to print without ornament, but he did not follow this advice when printing books at the Kelmscott Press.The hand press allowed Morris to use wood-engraved initials and borders, and its printing was blacker than a power-driven press. Morris printed on dampened handmade paper, creating indentations in the page. Morris believed that the indentations were an important part of the book's design, telling customers that The Gold Legend should not be pressed, which would have made the pages artificially smooth. Morris referred to selling books untrimmed and unbound, assuming that his buyers would rebind them. After finding out that most buyers did not rebind the books, Morris started trimming the deckle-edged edges after publishing Biblia innocentium. While Morris and Walker preferred paper in their books, they printed several copies of books on vellum for collectors. Vellum was difficult to print on compared to paper. Morris started using a thick, dark ink that came from a German supplier in Hannover in 1893. The pressmen had difficulty working with the stiff ink. Morris went back to using ink from Shackell, Edwards, and Co., until 1895 when they discovered yellow staining on some pages of the Chaucer. Morris asked the supplier in Hannover for a softer version of the ink, which he used for the rest of Chaucer. The softer ink did not dry very quickly, and Morris told customers that the book would not be ready for traditional binding until a year after its printing. Morris used red ink for titles and shoulder-notes. He experimented with other colors, but did not adopt them.
Walker influenced Morris's opinions on book design. In the 1880s, Walker supported a return to 15th-century aesthetics. He believed printers should put smaller spaces between words and after punctuation. Morris adopted the practice of smaller spaces between words and between lines, although it affected the legibility of the Kelmscott books. While the fifteenth-century books probably reduced spacing to conserve paper, Morris's insistence was based on his preference for the way the printed page looked with fewer spaces. Morris stated that the margins closest to the binding must be the smallest, followed by the head, fore and tail margins. Experts in medieval printing stated that the difference between the margins was usually less than twenty percent. In practice, Morris's fore margins were large to accommodate the shoulder-notes recommended by Walker instead of running titles. Morris left so little inner margin that rebinding was difficult. Morris published poetry in a prose style several times, presumably to avoid empty space on the page.
Fonts
Morris designed three typefaces for Kelmscott Press: Golden Type, Troy, and a smaller version of Troy called Chaucer. After deciding to found the press, Morris collected many books printed in the 15th century in Europe. He also had many books on printing and typography. In researching typefaces, Morris bought examples of every fine type he could find. Morris started designing his press's first typeface, Golden Type, by 1889. Walker's firm photographed the type at a large scale to help Morris see the actual shape of the letters. Golden Type was a Roman type inspired by a font used in Pliny's Historicae naturalis published by Nicolas Jenson and a similar font that Jacobus Rubeus used in publishing Historiae Florentini populi by Leonardus Brunus Aretinus. Morris stated that designing Golden Type was "the most troublesome task" he had ever tried. Morris traced the enlarged type until he felt comfortable with his understanding of the design. After freehanding his own design at the same scale, Walker photographed the drawings and reproduced them in the correct scale. Morris made modifications at every stage. Morris and Walker pioneered this method of working on typefaces at an enlarged size with the camera. Peterson notes that even though Morris and the Kelmscott Press was focused on returning to 15th-century designs, they still used the modern Victorian technology of photography in its art. Edward Prince, a craftsman who cut typefaces for many other fine presses, cut the punches for the type in 1890. Sir Charles Reed and Sons carried out the casting, and the font, in 14-point size, was completed in the winter of 1890–1891. With Golden Type, Morris did not make an italic or bold version and did not include brackets or dashes. The thickness of the font went well with the wood-engravings it often accompanied. Critics noted that its larger size and width discouraged commercial application. Stanley Morison strongly disliked it and criticized its large capital letters.After Golden Type, Morris developed Troy, a "semi-Gothic type designed with special regard to legibility", according to Morris. Morris used the same method he used to develop Golden Type as he did with Troy. He was influenced by books published by Shoeffer and Zainer. His illness delayed the font's development and the 18-point font was completed in 1892. He developed a 12-point version of Troy for the complete works of Chaucer, also called the Kelmscott Chaucer. He called the font the Chaucer. Because of these wide fonts, the books themselves had to be wide too. Morris bought handmade paper from Joseph Batchelor and Son. They used watermarks designed by Morris and provided him with paper in unusual sizes. Other booksellers admired the paper, leading to imitators. At Morris's suggestion, Batchelor adopted the name Kelmscott Handmade.
In the 1890s, photoengraving made it easy for entrepreneurs to copy Morris's typefaces and sell pirated typefaces. When an American foundry offered to sell Morris's typefaces in the United States, Morris refused. Joseph W. Phinney of the Dickinson Type Foundry in Boston sold a Jenson Old Style that was very similar to Golden Type. Satanick, an imitation Troy type, was available for purchase in 1896. Morris's own typefounders, Sir Charles Reed and Sons, started selling a Kelmscott Old Style type. Subsequently, Sydney Cockerell, the Kelmscott Press's administrator, threatened legal action against them.