Barbarian Press
Past Publications
Wood engraving by Andy English
(from The Eve of St. Agnes, 2003)
Many of the titles published by Barbarian Press in
the past are now out of print. Descriptions and publication details of
some of those titles are available here for your perusal.
Please note that all of these books are
OUT OF PRINT
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Click on title page
for additional images
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Founts & Circumstance
A typographical
portfolio of display and titling faces in grand isolation & in company
July
2002
PLEASE
NOTE THAT ALL COPIES OF THE PORTFOLIO AND OF THE INDIVIDUAL BROADSHEETS
ARE NOW SOLD.
Every designer and compositor
loves to play with odd typefaces, combining the mad with the austere,
the sluttish with the prim, the gargantuan with the dainty. Over the years
we have acquired quite a number of display and titling faces. Moreover,
we were recently given a small but delicious selection of such faces by
a friend. It seemed a propitious time to play with type again.
Some of these faces are useful
favourites, well-made and beautifully designed, and have seen service
in many ways; others are too quirky, too large, or too dated to be useful
in regular work. But as a desperately literate mother once said to us
of the rowdy and unconstrained mob that was her family, It seems
a shame to hide their bushels in the outward darkness. Their bushels
are therefore to be dragged into the inner light, as we present an array
of both familiar and unfamiliar faces in display, and in use with a selection
of texts.
Founts & Circumstance was first
announced in 1999, then scheduled for publication in the summer of 2001.
Various delays (paper shipments, problems with dampening paper which
required
sorting out, repairs to a press, and commitments to other work) delayed
the project, and it is finally published in July, 2002, in an edition
of 58 sets for sale, with an additional eight encore sets
made up from overruns. It comprises showings of fourteen featured display
faces in a dozen broadsheets, several of them folded. They are printed
on a selection of handmade and mouldmade papers, including a Kelmscott
paper handmade by Joseph Batchelor and Sons in about 1900; a vintage
English
mouldmade from Turkey Mill circa 1930; the rare Barcham Green
Eltham handmade, as well as two other Barcham Green papers; Velké Losiny
Prague, a lovely hand-made Czech paper; and Rideau Cream laid handmade
from the St. Armand Mill in Montreal. There are also mouldmades from St.
Armand, the Zerkall mill in Germany, and Somerset papers in England. Two
of the broadsheets are in fact pairs of broadsheets, for two very large
wood types Gill Shadow (matched with Dutch Initials) and an elaborate
and apparently unissued face called Hamilton Class S Script which
required more space than one sheet would allow; each of these pairs is
contained in a labelled folder.
The sheets range in size from the smallest, 15 ½ by 20 inches, to the
largest folded sheets which measure 22 by 30 inches when opened out.
Each
sheet gives an alphabetical showing of the display or titling face under
consideration and a setting of a text with the featured face used for
titling or display. These faces are Castellar, Frys Ornamented,
Modernistic & Chic, Tiern, Atrax, Perpetua, Demeter, Egmont Decorated
Initials, Hamilton Class S Script, Delphian, Dutch Initials, Gill Sans
Shadow and Open Kapitalen. The texts vary wildly: a letter by William
Cowper, a poem by Sappho in Greek and English, a mediæval lyric
in Middle English with a modern translation, the opening of
St. Johns Gospel in the King James version and the vulgate Latin,
a synopsis of Carmen in mangled Euro-English
from an Italian opera house, a selection from Whitmans Song
of Myself, a passage from Sir Thomas Browne, and many more. Each
sheet is printed in at least two colours.
To complete the set, there
is an oversized 12-page pamphlet of notes which offers a brief essay
on display and titling faces and gives historical background on the types.
These notes, printed in double column in many colours, also feature full
showings of nearly a dozen display or titling faces not used in the broadsheets,
and further include a great many drop caps and initials. The Acknowledgements
and Colophon for the set, signed by the printer and designer, are at
the
end of the Notes. They are side-stabbed and laced into covers of St.
Armand Turquoise Flax mouldmade paper with a label. Finally, there is
a title
sheet with a signed and numbered kallitype (a contact-printed photograph
on hand-made paper treated with emulsion, exposed by sunlight) by Canadian
photographer David Evans, whose recent book, Beyond
the Mountains, appeared to considerable acclaim in 1999.
Sets of the original edition
were housed in a scarlet clamshell box with printed spine label and a
label on the upper cover. The edition was 58 copies, and these were designated
by the inclusion in the lower inside right-hand corner of each box of
an upper or lower-case letter or figure sort of 72pt. Bembo. The price
was C$950/US$680. This edition was completely sold out before publication.
However, because of the difficulties of registration, inking and dampening,
many more sheets were pulled than were required for the edition, and
as
we kept receiving requests for copies long after the 58 designated sets
were sold, we have gone through the overruns and have been able to make
up eight more sets of what we are calling the Encore Edition.
ORIGINAL EDITION: SOLD OUT ON PUBLICATION.
ENCORE EDITION. These differ
from the original edition in three significant ways: they are contained
in a stiff paper folder with a label, rather than a box; they include
a specially designed and printed cancel title sheet rather than the original
sheet with the kalligraph; and the Notes in most copies have covers of
Somerset Antique or Newsprint, not St. Armand. In every other respect
the contents, including the notes, are the same as those of the main edition.
PRICE: C$850/US$590. OUT
OF PRINT
INDIVIDUAL
BROADSHEETS
The broadsheets in Founts & Circumstance are listed below, with photographs of each one
by David Evans. For interests sake, and for completeness,
we also include an illustration of the Atrax broadsheet, which is out
of print, and the title sheet with the kallitype, which is not available
for sale.
Please note: These
are not seconds; they are identical to the sheets in the complete sets.
Because of the difficulties of registration and inking on many of these
sheets, we overprinted considerably in order to be sure of completing
the edition. These overruns are the result. Sizes are W by H. Click on
thumbnails for a larger view.
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1) Sappho. The
moon has set... Translated by Crispin Elsted.
Open Kapitalen on Kelmscott handmade (1898). 15 by 20 inches. Purple,
gold, and black. Linocuts by Nancy Campbell.
C$125; approx. US$98
OUT
OF PRINT
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2) Exeter Riddle
Book. 6 Riddles. Translated by
Crispin Elsted.
Tiern with Romulus on Turkey Mill mouldmade (c. 1930). 15 ¾
by 24 ½ inches. Orange and black. Six images designed in runic
style by Crispin Elsted, drawn by Abigail Rorer.
OUT
OF PRINT
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3) William Cowper.
A Letter to a Friend.
Frys Ornamented and Caslon on Velké Losiny
Prague handmade. 23 by 16 ½ inches. Blue and black.
C$100; approx. US$86
OUT
OF PRINT |
4) Walt Whitman.
From Song of Myself.
Atrax and Goudy Catalogue on St. Armand
Peat Moss mouldmade. 30 by 22 inches. Red, blue, and black.
OUT
OF PRINT
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5) Sir Thomas Brown.
From Religio Medici
Castellar & Bembo on Barcham Green
Eltham handmade. 23 by 18 inches. Red and black.
C$125; approx. US$98
OUT
OF PRINT
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6) Anonymous. Carmen synopsis.
Erasmus Inline, Demeter, and Garamont
on Barcham Green Tovil handmade. 15 ½ by 20 ½ inches. Orange
and black. Monotype ornaments & cut.
C$100; approx. US$78
OUT
OF PRINT
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7) Henry King.
A Contemplation of Flowers.
Egmont Decorated Initials and Poliphilus
on Opus Watermedia paper. 15 by 22 ¼ inches. Light orange, moss
green and black.
Drawing by Hélène Francur printed from a line-block
and hand-coloured
Original price C$110. Now C$80
OUT
OF PRINT |
8)
St. John. John I, 1-13.
Perpetua Light Titling with Perpetua
on Somerset Book mouldmade paper. 26 by 19 inches. Blue, red, black
and gold. Calligraphic initial by Irene Alexander.
OUT
OF PRINT
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9)
Lewis Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson). 2 broadsheets.
A. Jabberwocky.
24-line Hamilton Class S Script, Bembo
roman and italic and Calligraphia on Somerset Newsprint mouldmade.
Light and dark green.
OUT
OF PRINT
B. Showing
of 24-line Hamilton Class S Script. Yellow
and blue on Somerset Newsprint mouldmade. Both 30 by 22 inches.
OUT
OF PRINT |
10) Crispin Elsted.Salt
[#10 from Kenfield Variations].
Delphian and Van Dijck on Barcham Green Hayle handmade. 15 ½
by 20 ½ inches. Sepia, brown and black.
C$100; approx. US$86
OUT
OF PRINT |
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11) The Gawain Poet.
3 broadsheets.
A. From Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Original Middle English and modern English version by Crispin Elsted.
24-line Gill Sans Shadow with Bembo;
Dutch initials with Goudy Text, Old English Engravers text,
Poliphilus and Blado; 22 by 30 inches; green, red and black.
C$125; approx. US$108
OUT
OF PRINT
B. Showing
of Gill Sans Shadow in maroon and yellow.
C$75/US$60
OUT
OF PRINT
C. Showing
of Dutch Initials with Cancelleresca Bastarda in burgundy
and black; 15 by 22 inches. All three on Somerset Antique mouldmade.
C$75; approx. US$60
OUT
OF PRINT
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12) Anonymous.
Menus [Selected items from continental
European menus in approximations of English].
Modernistic, Chic and Peignot on St.
Armand Rideau Cream laid handmade. 24 by 18 inches. Pink, pale
blue and black. Cartouches printed from polymers after pastel drawings OUT
OF PRINT
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NOTES & COMMENTS,
PERSONAL AND HISTORICAL.
Essay on display and titling faces, with comprehensive notes on
each of the 12 sheets in the set. Considerable type lore and historical
commentary.
12-page pamphlet (15 ½ by 22 ½ inches)
side-stabbed and laced with jute cord into covers of Somerset Newsprint
or Antique mouldmade, with label on upper cover. 14 point Garamont
with profuse examples of other titling and display faces, in multiple
colours. OUT
OF PRINT
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