The Ashendene Press was a small

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 ...

founded by

St John Hornby Charles Harold St John Hornby (25 June 1867 – 1946) was a founding partner of W. H. Smith, deputy vice-chairman of the NSPCC, and founder and owner of the Ashendene Press. Early life Charles Harold St John (pronounced 'Sin-jun') Hornby was b ...

(1867–1946). It operated from 1895 to 1915 in Chelsea, London and was revived after the war in 1920. The press closed in 1935. Its peers included the

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 ...

and the

Doves Press The Doves Press was a private press based in Hammersmith, London. During nearly seventeen years of operation, Doves Press produced notable examples of twentieth-century typography. A distinguishing feature of its books was a specially-devised typ ...

. Hornby became friends with

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 ...

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 ...

, who helped inspire his work. These three presses were part of a "revival of fine printing" that focused on treating bookmaking as fine art. The Ashendene Press was famous for producing high-quality works by

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

. Ashendene books had excellent bindings and focused more on pleasure than reform than the other private presses of the time, though one review claims that the Ashendene Press was the most successful private press in recapturing the essence of fifteenth-century printing. Ashendene books were carefully printed with large margins, and despite their lack of extravagant decoration, they were considered spectacular works of art. Two original

typeface A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...

s were created for the Ashendene Press: Subiaco and Ptolemy. They were known for handwritten, colored initials by

Graily Hewitt William Graily Hewit or Graily Hewitt (1864–1952) was a British calligrapher and novelist who played a key role in the revival of calligraphy in England in the early 20th century, alongside Edward Johnston. Biography Hewitt was educated at ...

. The press' main customers were book collectors who paid for a subscription for Ashendene books.

History

The printing press was originally set up in Hornby's father's estate, Ashendene, where his sisters, brother, and cousin could assist in printing the press' first books. Printing was a hobby for Hornby; he undertook the project solely for the pleasure it would bring him. Hornby moved the Ashendene Press with him when he moved to Shelley House, Chelsea, London in 1899. It closed for five years in 1915 but resumed printing from 1920 until 1935. Hornby was greatly influenced and inspired by the work of the Kelmscott Press and the Doves Press, both in his decision to start the Ashendene Press and in his artistic choices. These three presses are considered part of the

Private Press Movement 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 ...

and the larger

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 ...

in England at the end of the 19th century, though for Hornby, printing was always a hobby to be enjoyed rather than a venue for reform. Each of these presses produced books that were considered works of art, though the Ashendene Press produced books of excellent quality inspired by fifteenth-century printing practices. The wood engraver William Harcourt Hooper worked for them from about 1896. Edward Prince, who also worked with the Kelmscott and Doves presses, cut types for Ashendene. Emery Walker worked with Hornby to design the press' two original types. Hornby worked with

Sydney Cockerell Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell (16 July 1867 – 1 May 1962) was an English museum curator and collector. From 1908 to 1937, he was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. He was knighted in 1934. Biography Sydney Cockerell m ...

to analyze the historic typefaces on which the Ashendene Press faces were based.

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as "the greatest artist-craftsma ...

, Graily Hewitt, Charles Gere, and

Gwen Raverat Gwendolen Mary "Gwen" Raverat (née Darwin; 26 August 1885 – 11 February 1957), was an English wood engraver who was a founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers. Her memoir ''Period Piece'' was published in 1952. Biography Gwendolen Ma ...

were other artists who worked for the press. The illustrator Florence Kingsford Cockerell illuminated an Ashendene edition of ''The Song of Songs Which Is Solomon's'' in 1901, varying the designs for each of the 40-odd copies in the edition."Florence Kingsford"
Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Hornby used

Albion press The Albion press is a model of early iron hand printing press, originally designed and manufactured in London by Richard Whittaker Cope (d. 1828?) around 1820. History The Albion press worked by a simple toggle action, unlike the complex lever- ...

es. He used

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

from J. Batchelor & Sons and

vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. Vellu ...

from H. Band & Co. Ashendene books were bound by Zaehnsdorf initially and later were done by the W. H. Smith bindery. The press' main customers were book collectors who paid for a subscription for Ashendene books. In addition to his impressive books, Hornby was known to print announcements, menus, and Christmas cards. Before the press closed in 1935, Hornby printed a farewell notice to his subscribers announcing that ''A Descriptive Bibliography of the Books Printed at the Ashendene Press'' would be the last book. Bridwell Library now holds archives for the Ashendene Press in their special collections, a collection that includes papers, original designs, manuscripts, correspondence, ledgers, and

folios The term "folio" () has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book made ...

Design

Initially, Hornby used typefaces of the Fell type, but most Ashendene editions used one of two typefaces which were specially cast for the Press: '' Subiaco'' and, to a lesser extent, ''Ptolemy''. ''Subiaco'' was based on a fifteenth-century Italian type cast by

Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Sweynheim Arnold Pannartz and Conrad Sweynheym were two printers of the 15th century, associated with Johannes Gutenberg and the use of his invention, the mechanical movable-type printing press. Backgrounds Arnold Pannartz was, perhaps, a native of Prague ...

. Morris originally planned to design a type based on Pannartz and Sweynheim's work, but abandoned the project. Hornby, who didn't consider himself a designer, paid for the project to be completed, named the type as ''Subiaco'', and used it in the Ashendene Press for more than 20 years. The original Pannartz and Sweynheim type had rather gothic characteristics but the Ashendene version eliminated the long "s" and completely redesigned the "k," "w" and "y." The typeface ''Ptolemy'' was created for the press's edition of ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

'' and was based on the type used for a printing of Ptolemy's

Geographia The ''Geography'' (, , "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, compiling the geographical knowledge of the 2nd-century Roman Empire. Originally wri ...

in 1482. ''Ptolemy'' was cut mechanically, unlike ''Subiaco'' which had been cut by hand by Edward Prince. Of the two types, ''Subiaco'' was darker but ''Ptolemy'' was more readable. Today, both ''Subiaco'' and ''Ptolemy'' are owned by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

. Many Ashendene books featured printer's marks. One of Hornby's marks depicted two men working a printing press and read "". he man are bad but their books are good The books also featured handwritten initials by Graily Hewitt and other artists. Some Ashendene books, such as that by St. Francis of Assisi, were illustrated with

wood-engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and prints using relatively lo ...

s, but the majority were printed solely using type.

Works

''Tutte le Opere di Dante Alighieri''

Hornby dedicated almost a decade to printing Dante's works. The first appearance of the Subiaco type was in 1905 when the press printed Dante's Inferno. The Ashendene Inferno received high praise in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

from Theodore de Vinne, who said that Subiaco was "the most satisfactory reproduction of a fifteenth-century face that has yet appeared." Four years later, the Ashendene Press published the complete works of Dante under the title ''Tutte le Opere di Dante Alighieri'', also in Subiaco, which is considered to be one of the greatest works by an English private press along with the Kelmscott's

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He ...

and the Doves'

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

for its precision, clearness, readability, and artistry. The press printed 6 copies on

and 105 copies on

. The text on each page was divided into two columns and featured red print for initials, headings, and notes. Paper copies were printed on Batchelor's paper with Ashendene's bugle watermark.

''Poems Written in the Year MCMXII by Robert Bridges Poet-Laureate''

Robert Bridges had previously published his works with the

Daniel Press The Daniel Press was a private press in England, run by Charles Henry Olive Daniel (1836–1919), his wife Emily and later even their daughters, firstly at Frome and afterwards in Oxford. Henry Daniel began printing in 1845, when still a schoolbo ...

, but in 1915 he reached out to the Ashendene Press with twelve new poems. Hornby had a reputation for excellent printing that Bridges trusted enough with his new work. This publication was the press' only work of literary significance since it was the original printing of these poems. Some copies featured blue initials, some red, others only black. The book was printed in quarto size and bound in blue paper boards with linen backing. Eighty-five copies were printed on paper and six on vellum, but none were for sale. Bridges had requested only enough copies for him to give to his friends.

''Daphnis et Chloé''

The press experienced ruin when their first attempt at printing ''Daphnis et Chloé'' on Japanese vellum was folded before the ink had dried completely. The ''Descriptive Bibliography of the Ashendene Press'' featured a leaf from this ruined printing. ''Daphnis et Chloé'' was reprinted on Batchelor paper in 1933. This edition featured blue initials by Hewitt, wood engravings by Raverat, and Monotype Pastonic italic, a typeface not used by the Ashendene Press elsewhere. Two hundred and ninety copies were printed on paper and bound with green paper boards while twenty copies were printed on vellum and bound in blue or green pigskin.

Bibliography

This is a list of books printed, published, or sold by the Ashendene Press. The years listed refer to the year the book was printed by the Ashendene Press, not necessarily the year it was initially published. * ''The Journal of Joseph Hornby, February–March 1815'' (1895) * ''

La Vita Nuova ''La Vita Nuova'' (; modern Italian for "The New Life") or ''Vita Nova'' (Latin and medieval Italian title ) is a text by Dante Alighieri published in 1294. It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a ...

'' by Dante (1895) * ''Ye Minutes of ye CLXXVIIthe Meeting of ye Sette of Odd Volumes'' (1896) * ''Three Poems of

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...

'' (1896) * ''

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam ''Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám'' is the title that Edward FitzGerald (poet), Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian language, Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (') attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dub ...

'' (1896) * '' The Thoughts of

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors and the ...

'' (1897) * '' The Book of Ecclesiastes'' (1897) * '' Two Essays of Francis Lord Bacon'' (1897) * ''The Prologue to the Tales of Caunterbury'' by

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

(1897) * ''Three Elegies: Lycidas, Adonais, Thyris'' (1899) * '' The Song-Story of Aucassin and Nicolete'' translated by

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a folkloristics, collector of folklore, folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectur ...

(1900) * '' The Boke off the Revelacion off Sanct Jhon the Devine'' (1901) * ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * ''Inferno'' (1980 film), an Italian ...

'' by Dante (1902-1905) * '' The Song of Solomon'' (1902) * ''Quinti Horati Flacci Alcaica; Carmina Sapphica'' (1903) * ''A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle'' (1903) * ''A Book of Songs and Poems from the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

and the

Apocrypha Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

'' (1904) * ''Un Mazzetto Scelto di Certi Fioretti di San Francesco'' (1904) * ''Purgatorio di Dante'' (1904) * ''Paradiso di Dante'' (1905) * ''

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

'' by Thomas More (1906) * ''The Story without an End'' (1909) * ''Tutte le Opere di

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

'' (1909) * ''Publii Vergilii Maronis Opera'' (1910) * '' Morte Darthur'' by Sir Thomas Malory (1912) * ''T. Lucreti Cari de Rerum Natura'' (1913) * ''Poems Written in the Year MCMXII by

Robert Bridges Robert Seymour Bridges (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was a British poet who was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is ...

Poet-Laureate'' (1915) * ''Il Decameron di Giovanni Boccaccio'' (1920) * ''Refugees in Chelsea'' by Henry James (1920) * ''Vita di S. Chiara Vergine'' by Ugolino Verino (1921) * '' I Fioretti di S. Francesco'' by St. Francis of Assisi (1922) * ''

The Faerie Queen ''The Faerie Queene'' is an English Epic poetry, epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and ov ...

'' by Edmund Spenser (1923) * ''The Golden Asse of Lucius Apuleius'' (1924) * ''The Young King & Other Tales'' by Oscar Wilde (1924) * ''The Minor Poems'' by Edmund Spenser (1925) * '' The History of Don-Quixote'' by Miguel de Cervantes (1927-1928) * ''

Thucydides Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...

History of the Peloponnesian War The ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' () is a historical account of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), which was fought between the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) and the Delian League (led by Classical Athens, Athens). The account, ...

'' translated by B. Jowett (1930) * '' The Book of Ecclesiasticus'' (1932) * '' Les amours pastorales de Daphnis et Chloe'' by Longus (1933) * ''A Descriptive Bibliography of the Books Printed at The Ashendene Press'' (1935)