In
printing
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...
and
publishing
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
, the fine press are printers and publishers publishing
book
A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...
s and other printed matter of exceptional intrinsic quality and artistic taste,
including both commercial and
private press
Private press publishing, with respect to books, is an endeavor performed by craft-based expert or aspiring artisans, either amateur or professional, who, among other things, print and build books, typically by hand, with emphasis on Book design ...
es.
History
As part of the
Arts and Crafts
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...
movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Englishman
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...
wanted to counter the industrialization of culture through a revival of craft in printing, printmaking, and publishing. One of the books they published was the
Kelmscott Chaucer. Soon, fine presses began to spring up in the United States as well; the most prominent was the
Roycroft Press. Los Angeles was a center of the fine press movement, particularly centered on the Ward Ritchie press. In the 1920s, San Francisco became known for the elegant publications of
John Henry Nash, and likewise became a fine press center on the west coast.
List of fine presses
United States
* Alderbrink Press (1897–1928?)
*
Arion Press, San Francisco (1974–present)
*
Blue Sky Press (1899–1906)
* Clerk's Press (1908–1919)
*
Colt Press, San Francisco
* Cranbrook Press (1900–1902)
*
Easton Press
* Elston Press (1900–1904)
*
Grabhorn Press, San Francisco
* John Henry Nash, San Francisco
*
Marion Press (1896–1931)
*
The Mosher Press (1891–1923+) Set up by
Thomas Bird Mosher in 1891, in
Portland, Maine
Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...
* Philosopher Press (1896–1904)
* Plantin Press, Los Angeles. Founded by Saul and Lillian Marks, in 1931
*
Roycroft Press (1896–1915+) Set up by
Elbert Hubbard in 1895
* Saunders Studio Press, Claremont. Founded by Lynne and Ruth Thompson Saunders in 1927
*
Trovillion Press at the Sign of the Silver Horse Set up by Hal W. Trovillion in
Herrin, Illinois, in 1908
*
Hammer Creek Press (1950–1962)
*
Thornwillow Press, New York (1985–present)
* Ward Ritchie Press
United Kingdom
*
Ashendene Press (1894–1935)
*
Daniel Press Oxford (1874–1903)
*
Doves Press (1900–1916) - Founded by
T. J. Cobden-Sanderson and
Emery Walker
Sir Emery Walker FSA (2 April 1851 – 22 July 1933) was an English engraver, photographer and printer. Walker took an active role in many organisations that were at the heart of the Arts and Crafts movement, including the Art Workers Gu ...
* Eragny Press (1894–1914)
*
Essex House Press (1898–1910)
* Fine Press Poetry (founded 2013) by Andrew J Moorhouse
*
Folio Society
The Folio Society is an independent London-based publisher, founded by Charles Ede in 1947 and incorporated in 1971. Formerly privately owned, it became an employee ownership trust in 2021.
It produces illustrated hardback fine press edit ...
- Founded by
Charles Ede in 1947
*
Golden Cockerel Press
The Golden Cockerel Press was an English fine press operating between 1920 and 1961.
History
The private press made handmade limited editions of classic works. The type was hand-set and the books were printed on handmade paper, and sometimes ...
- Founded by Harold Midgley Taylor in 1920
* Gregynog Press (1922-) - Founded by Gwendoline and Margaret Davies
*
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 illus ...
(1891–1898) - Set up by
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...
in 1891
*
Kynoch Press
The Kynoch Press was an English-based fine press in Witton, Birmingham, founded in 1876 as a company press for Kynoch, a British manufacturer of ammunition. Initially, the press was used to print packaging. The press closed in 1981.
History ...
(1876–1981) - English-based fine press in Witton, Birmingham, founded as a company press for
Kynoch
Kynoch was a manufacturer of ammunition that was later incorporated into ICI, but remained as a brand name for sporting cartridges.
History
The firm of Pursall and Phillips operated a 'percussion cap manufactory' at Whittall Street, in Birmin ...
, a British ammunition manufacturer.
*
Nonesuch Press - Founded in 1922 by Francis and Vera Meynell, and David Garnett
* The Press of
Gaetano Polidori
*
Rampant Lions Press (1924–2008)
*
Strawberry Hill Press of
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian.
He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...
*
Vale Press (1896–1905)
Continental Europe
*
Ad insigne pinus (1594–1619) In
Augsburg
Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...
*
AIZ Dosije (1988–Present) In
Belgrade
Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
Australia
*
Finlay Press founded and operated by
Phil Day (artist) and Ingeborg Hansen in Australia. 1997–2009.
See also
*
Arts and Crafts movement
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America.
Initiat ...
*
Private press
Private press publishing, with respect to books, is an endeavor performed by craft-based expert or aspiring artisans, either amateur or professional, who, among other things, print and build books, typically by hand, with emphasis on Book design ...
*
Small press
A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. However, when a distinction ...
References
External links
Fine Press Book Association (UK)
List of Fine Presses{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304190156/http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/List_of_Fine_Presses , date=2016-03-04 at
LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a social cataloging web application for storing and sharing book catalogs and various types of book metadata. It is used by authors, individuals, libraries, and publishers.
Based in Portland, Maine, LibraryThing was developed b ...
Printing
Publishing
Book collecting