The Printers and Typographers Ishill had a strong interest in typography and the graphic arts. He was an admirer of many of the great printers and typographers. On display in this case are several of the books and pamphlets that Ishill printed in tribute to those men.
William Morris And The Arts And Crafts, by Holbrook Jackson. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1934. Copy no. 18.
Jenson and Hadriano types; printed in black and orage; 140 copies on Strathmore Wayside Text and 20 on Kelmscott Hammer and Anvil handmade; boards with linen spine; 6 x 8.5 inches; 18 p.
William Morris (1834-1896) is considered by some to be the finest English craftsman of the nineteenth century. The leader of the arts and crafts movement, he is best known for his final venture, as proprietor of The Kelmscott Press. Morris was a pioneer of the fine press move- ment. Ishill was a great admirer of Morris' work and of his ideals.
With The North-West Wind, by R.B. Cunninghame Graham, and a Tribute by Edward Carpenter. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1934. Copy no. 31.
Garamond type; woodcut frontispiece by Louis Moreau and a line drawing by Walter Crane; printed in black and orange; 120 copies on Strathmore Wayside Text, 100 on Nuremberg mould- made, and 4 on Japanese vellum; 5.25 x 8 inches; 28 p.
Inscription: "for my dear friend, Max Metzkow, with the best wishes - Joseph Ishill, Dec. 1934"
Cunninghame Graham (1852-1936), a Scottish writer and social reformer, describes William Morris in this essay as a "pilot poet lent by the Vikings to steer us from the Doldrums in which we now lie all becalmed in smoke to some Valhalla of his own creation beyond the world's end."
Typophily, An Essay, by Holbrook Jackson. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1954.
Cromwell type; printed in four colors on miscellaneous papers; wrappers; 4.375 x 7.75 inches; 10 p.
The author of many works on book collecting, as well as biographies of William Morris and George Bernard Shaw, Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948) was a bibliophile and a scholar of bookmaking. Ishill printed several of his essays, both in Free Vistas, and as small pamphlets such as this one. This is an interesting essay for Ishill to reprint, since it pertains almost exclusively to the physical appearance of a book, whereas Ishill was more consciously concerned with the text of a book than its merits as a thing of beauty.
The Doves Bindery, by Evelyn Hunter Nordhoff. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1964.
Goudy Kennerley type for text and Post Roman for title; printed in four colors; 50 copies on Warren Olde Style paper; wrappers; 5.375 x 8.625 inches; 22 p.
T. J. Cobden-Sanderson (1840-1922) was a bit like his neighbor, William Morris. A craftsman of the "old school" and a socialist (although not as outspoken as Morris), Cobden- Sanderson became a master bookbinder after a career as a barrister. His workshop, the Doves Bindery, turned out some of the most finely bound books ever produced. The final paragraphs of this essay comment on Cobden-Sanderson's socialist sympathies.
Evening At Deepdene (Meditations Of Bygone Days), by Frederic W. Goudy. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1964.
Kennerley Old Style with Raffia initial; printed in blue and red; 150 copies on Warren Olde Style paper for the Alfred A. Knopf's Keepsake and 50 copies for distribution by the Oriole Press; wrappers; 4.25 x 7.25 inches; 8 p.
It is clear from his writings and from many of his colophons that Ishill greatly admired Goudy's (1865-1947) work. This pamphlet, with its various selections of Carlyle, Bacon, Cobden- Sanderson, Thoreau and Hazlitt, includes an essay by Goudy originally published in his Ars Typographica. Although Ishill and Goudy shared professional interests, Ishill's reprinting of this essay demonstrates that they also shared a love of nature.
Eric Gill, An Essay by Herbert Read. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1963.
Kennerley type with Della Robbia initial and Erasmus for title; printed in black and blue; 100 copies on Strathmore Pastelle Antique paper; wrappers; 5.375 x 8.125 inches; 24 p.
Eric Gill (1882-1940) was an English artist and craftsman. Possibly the finest type- designer of this century, Gill was also well-known for his offbeat style. These first few lines of Herbert Read's essay make Ishill's interest in Gill quite apparent. Although he surely held Gill in high regard as an artist and designer of type, it must have been Gill's admission of his sympathy for anarchism which endeared him to Ishill.
William Caxton (The First English Printer), by Holbrook Jackson. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1959. Copy no. 174.
Frontispiece portrait from an engraving; Kennerley Old Style & Libra type; printed in three colors; 200 copies on Warren Olde Style paper and 20 copies on Renker Text; stiff wrappers with printed label; 5.25 x 8.125 inches; 22 p.
William Caxton (ca. 1420-1491) began his life as a merchant. His work in literary translations in the middle of his life, however, led him into the new profession of printer. Demand for copies of his English translations, particularly Raoul Le Fèvre's Recueil des histoires de Troye, forced him to seek an easier method for producing copies, which he found in the newly invented process of printing with movable type.
Ishill had originally asked Holbrook Jackson for an essay to include in Free Vistas, Volume II. Because time did not permit him to write an original essay, as the letter from Jackson indicates, he submitted this essay, which first appeared in a limited edition by William H. Robinson, Ltd, Pall Mall, London.
