I’ve spent four terrific days learning more about letterpress wood type at APSU’s Goldsmith Press and Rare Type Archive, and have printed the above 15 x 20″ poster from Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Here’s a rundown of the process.
Day One: I arrive, meet press proprietor and professor Cindy Marsh, get the lay of the land, and begin typesetting the headlines for the Shakespearean Revival poster. I find some great “period” faces and lay out the type n a table top. But, after lunch I discover that there is not enough smaller metal type to set the poster’s text. So, after considering my options, I decide to print this Royal Nonesuch poster since it has less text.
Day Two: I finish pulling type for the poster, robbing 36 pt. wood type from some old projects. After lunch I work on the negative space, building up the form with quads, spacers, leading, and furniture. By the end of the day the poster is locked up on the press bed and ready for its first proof.
Day Three: I fine tune the letterspacing, cut down the paper, and pull a first proof, which is badly over-inked. Cindy arrives to critique my work while my daughter Chloe races around the studio on her scooter. After marking up the proof, I wash out the press and tweak some kerning, flip a reversed 3, and add the crown and rule dingbats. This last item was Cindy’s suggestion, giving a regal tough to the Royal Nonesuch. I decide to leave the typo in “David” as an homage to the Duke’s many errors with Shakespeare and facts in general. We re-ink the press properly this time and pull a second proof. Not bad. More tweaking: the apostrophe is a bit low and the A is a bit high. Cindy removes an unnoticed label stuck to the bottom of the A, and places a scrap of paper beneath the apostrophe. Perfection! I pull the edition and leave them in the drying racks.
Day Four: I break down the press form, working from the top down to carefully re-file the type, spacers, leads, furniture, quoins, and other detritus from printing. I refile a few other old projects as well, just for good karma. I also stack, count, and wrap my dry prints. After some chatting with Cindy and my professor Bruce Childs, Chloe and I say our goodbyes and drive off toward home.
