The Art and Craft of Printing
Beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing into the early twentieth, the Arts and Crafts movement rejected technological developments in book manufacture, advocating for a return to pre-industrial methods of craftsmanship. Printers like William Morris and his Kelmscott Press, for example, promoted production techniques that harkened back to a pre-mechanized era. Morris was inspired by the aesthetics of 15thcentury books, employing a hand-driven press and hand-made paper. He also wrote and published short works expounding on his philosophy, as seen here with copies of his “The Art and Craft of Printing” and “The Ideal Book.”
Galley with type set for first lines of the Gettysburg Address, with a final print from that type. History of the Book and Printing Tools Collection, 6460.
William Morris. The Art and Craft of Printing. New Rochelle, NY: Elston Press, 1902.
William Morris. The Ideal Book. New York: Printed for George H. Broughton Jr. at the Calumet Press, January 1899.
Morris’s ideas reached the United States, bringing Arts and Crafts ideals to an American audience. As part of this movement, Elbert Hubbard founded the Roycroft community, composed of printers, metal smiths, bookbinders, furniture-makers, and other artisans, in 1895 in East Aurora, New York. A catalog of Roycroft books shown here includes photographs of community members, and features ornately decorated pages in the Arts and Crafts style.
The Roycroft Books: a catalogue and some comment concerning the shop at East Aurora, New York, and its workers . East Aurora, NY: The Roycroft Shop, 1902.
In the twentieth century, presses such as the Golden Cockerel Press and the Doves Press carried forward this tradition of carefully crafted, beautifully designed books. The Doves Press, founded by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson, commissioned its own font, Doves Roman, which was used on The Doves Bible, considered to be among the most beautiful examples of typography in the 20thcentury. The Golden Cockerel Press, established in 1920, was also inspired by Arts and Crafts principles. Printmaker Eric Gill not only designed the Golden Cockerel Press Type, but also created the illustrations for that press’s most celebrated work, The Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The English Bible . Hammersmith: The Doves Press, 1903-1905.
The Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ According to the Authorized Version of King James I. with decoration by Eric Gill. Waltham Saint Lawrence, Berkshire: Golden Cockerel Press, 1931.
Thus, at a time when other segments of the printing industry embraced technological developments that enabled greater speed, efficiency, and mass production, a small but influential group of book artisans rebelled against such advancements. Their resistance to the imperatives of creating products faster and more cheaply also appeared in reactions to sound technology at certain points in its development. While many users embraced increasingly portable and individualized listening experiences, at the same time, others criticized the technology for this increasing individualization and its way of isolating people. The controversy continues today.