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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 design, grap ...
founded by St John Hornby (1867–1946). It operated from 1895 to 1915 in
Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament const ...
, 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 fifty-three books in sixty-six volumes between 1891 and 1898. Each book was designed and ornamented by Morris and printed by hand in limited editions of around 300. Many ...
and the
Doves Press The Doves Press was a private press based in Hammersmith, London. During nearly seventeen years of operation, the Doves Press produced notable examples of twentieth-century typography. A distinguishing feature of its books was a specially-devised ...
. Hornby became friends with
William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He w ...
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 (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
. 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
typefaces A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...
were created for the Ashendene Press: Subiaco and Ptolemy. They were known for handwritten, colored initials by Graily Hewitt. 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 continued 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 and the larger Arts and Crafts Movement 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 to analyze the historic fonts on which the Ashendene Press fonts 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-cra ...
, 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 M ...
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 presses. He used
paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...
from J. Batchelor & Sons and
vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other animal ...
from H. Band & Co. Ashendene books were bound by Zaehnsdorf initially and later were done by the
W. H. Smith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...
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 ma ...
.


Design

Initially, Hornby used fonts of the Fell type, but most Ashendene editions used one of two
font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a " sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mo ...
s which were specially cast for the Press: Subiaco, which 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 ...
in Subiaco, Italy, and to a lesser extent Ptolemy. 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 font 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 font Ptolemy was created for the press' edition of ''
Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...
'' and was based on the type used for a printing of Ptolemy's
Geographia The ''Geography'' ( grc-gre, Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις, ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'',  "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, com ...
in 1482. Ptolemy was cut mechanically, unlike Subiaco which had been made by
Edward Prince Edward Philip Prince (1846–1923) was a British engraver and punchcutter, a cutter of the punches used to stamp the matrices used to cast metal type. Working during the period of the Arts and Crafts movement, after William Morris's Kelmscott Pr ...
. 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 is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pr ...
. Many Ashendene books featured printer's marks. One of Hornby's marks depicted two men working a printing press and read "Les hommes sont meschants mais leurs livres sont bons." The books also featured handwritten initials by Graily Hewitt and other artists. Some Ashendene books, such as that by
St. Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...
, were illustrated with
wood-engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images 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 ...
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'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
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 w ...
and the Doves'
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
for its precision, clearness, readability, and artistry. The press printed 6 copies on
vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other animal ...
and 105 copies on
paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...
. 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, 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'' 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 and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and politica ...
'' (1896) * ''
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam ''Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám'' is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (') attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dubbed "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia". Altho ...
'' (1896) * '' The Thoughts of
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...
'' (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 collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University o ...
(1900) * '' The Boke off the Revelacion off Sanct Jhon the Devine'' (1901) * '' Inferno'' 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 (often abbreviated 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 writings by the Israelites. The ...
and the
Apocrypha Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
'' (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 imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island soc ...
'' by Thomas More (1906) * ''The Story without an End'' (1909) * ''Tutte le Opere di
Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His '' Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ...
'' (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 an English 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 Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...
(1922) * ''
The Faerie Queen ''The Faerie Queene'' is an English 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 over 4,000 stan ...
'' 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 (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...
:
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 Athens). It was written by Thucydides, an ...
'' translated by B. Jowett (1930) * '' The Book of Ecclesiasticus'' (1932) * '' Daphnis et Chloé'' by Maurice Ravel (1933) * ''A Descriptive Bibliography of the Books Printed at The Ashendene Press'' (1935)


References


See also


Image of Ashendene's edition
of ''
The Faerie Queene ''The Faerie Queene'' is an English 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 over 4,000 sta ...
'', located at the
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wisc ...
. * The Double Crown Club
Bridwell Library's Special Collections
located at
Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = " The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , p ...
{{Authority control Small press publishing companies Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Publishing companies established in 1895 Publishing companies established in 1920 British companies established in 1895 British companies established in 1920 Publishing companies disestablished in 1915 Publishing companies disestablished in 1935 Publishing companies based in London Re-established companies Harold B. Lee Library-related rare books articles