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st james park press

King Arthur

King Arthur: Excalibur

The tales of the Sword in the Stone and the Lady of the Lake, retold  in short stories, from the early texts.

King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur

THE EDITION

Printed in the summer  and autumn of 2020 on an Albion Press, in hand-set 14pt Dante, with titling in various sizes of Dante, as well as Saxon Black, Legende and Edina foundry types, in black, white, tiger-lily, and light cyan-blue inks, each colour printed in separate print runs.

 

special

 

Printed on smooth white Zerkall watermarked paper 145gsm, with the addition of the last stock of Herefordshire pink hand-made paper by Maureen Richardson, and the very first batch of light blue hand-made paper from Paper Foundation for the texts, and grey Mitientes endpapers, on which a repeat pattern of ancient swords has been printed in white. 

King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur
Maureen Richardson hand-made paper
Paper Foundation hand-made paper

Maureen Richardson is the author of various books and articles on hand-made papers, such as: Plant Papers (1978), Handmade Paper (Apple Press, 1999), Papermaking by Hand (Matrix 3, 1983), Paper as an Art Form (Matrix 6, 1986), Earth Pigments in Plant Papers (Matrix 21, 2001) and Paper from Bracket Fungi (Matrix 25, 2005), amongst others. Her focus was on the foraging of earth pigments from which to colour her hand-made papers. This paper is from such pigments found in Herefordshire, mixed with abaca pulp, and made on a mould once belonging to and used by John Mason, of the Twelve by Eight Press in Leicester.

 

The light blue hand-made paper by Paper Foundation of Cumbria, is made from a Griffen Mill beater, on a Griffen Mill Royal sized mould which features the Griffen Mill watermark. Griffen Mill, in County Mayo, was the only paper mill in Ireland, holding a Royal Warrant, before its closure. Paper Foundation took on equipment and moulds from this and other closed Mills, which enables their paper to be made in Cumbria. This paper was made by Tom Frith-Powell, Paul Davis and Mark Cropper, aided by Mike Gibbs of the Griffen Mill. The paper, of archival neutral pH quality, is two parts cotton and one part abaca, made with synthetic dyes.

Bound by Roger Grech, hardcover in Kozo Japanese paper featuring a printed red cross on front and rear, in a red solander box with Hadriano Stone-Cut printed spine labels and a portfolio of prints.

King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur

ordinary

 

Printed on smooth white Zerkall watermarked paper 145gsm, with colour Zerkall Ingres paper for the texts, and grey plain Mitientes endpapers.

 

Sewn by Roger Grech and soft-covered in a BFK Rives dust wrapper featuring a printed red cross on front.

King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur

text

The mythical tales of the Sword in the Stone and the Lady of the Lake, the text blocks of which are broken up with ornamental crosses in place of pilcrows.

King Arthur
King Arthur

illustrations

 

Featuring four wood-engravings by Jane Randfield.

 

Jane is a prize-winning member of the Society of Wood Engravers and a commercial illustrator whose clients include: Chatto & Windus, Random House, Jonathan Cape, and major enterprises such as the BBC, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose, to name but a few.

 

Despite a large portfolio of major engraved works, this edition represents her first work for any private press, which are not available for sale as individual prints from the artist. 

 

special

 

The wood engravings are printed on smooth white watermarked Zerkall paper 145gsm as part of the edition, and also printed separately on Kozo Japanese paper from Sennelier in Paris, in an accompanying grey Mitientes paper portfolio, to match the endpapers.

 

The endpapers for the specials are also decorated with a printed repeat design of ancient swords.

King Arthur

ordinary

 

The wood engravings printed on smooth white watermarked Zerkall paper 145gsm as part of the edition.

(2020)

165 x 254mm

25 pp.

The edition is limited to 35 specials and 65 ordinary copies only. 

SOLD OUT

© ST JAMES PARK PRESS 2023





 

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