Vale Press
The Vale Press was a British private printing company .
history
The Vale Press was founded in 1894 by the English artist Charles Ricketts (1866–1931) and existed until 1904. The print shop is named after Ricketts' residence in Chelsea (London).
As an artist, Ricketts was open to the art trends of the time and was familiar with French art, which was influenced, among other things, by Japanese woodcut art.
Together with his artist friend Charles Shannon (1863-1937), he was the editor of The Dial magazine , which appeared until 1897.
As models for his typographical designs, Ricketts preferred the fonts of the 15th century, which were developed in Italy under the influence of the Renaissance. Contrary to William Morris and his followers, he rejected Gothic influences. His first typographical draft for the "Vale Press" was the "Vale-Type" (1894), followed by the "Avon-Type" (1899) and the "King's-Type" (1901/02).
A big difference to the other English private printing companies was the production of the books, because Ricketts did not supervise the production on hand presses himself, but left the printing of his books to another printer, the "Ballantyne Press", and the publication to an independent publisher, the company "Elkin Mathews & John Lane". In the "Vale Press" only the designs by Ricketts were implemented and their distribution was transferred to other hands.
In 1899 the "Ballantyne Press" was almost completely destroyed by fire and the typographical and artistic printing material of the "Vale Press" was damaged or destroyed.
A special achievement of the "Vale Press" is the artistic design of the collected works of William Shakespeare , which were printed in 39 volumes around 1900–1903. The editions of the "Vale Press" are rich in decorative book decorations, such as illustrations and floral ornaments. The diverse equipment of the works does not appear overloaded and imposing, but rather well positioned and reserved.
Ricketts' artistic achievements were, among other things, a model for the work of Marcus Behmer .
swell
- Michaela Braesel: The "Private Press Movement" . In: Gutenberg Museum (Ed.): In Search of the Ideal Book. William Morris and the 1896 Chaucer edition of Kelmscott Press . Mainz 1996, pp. 66-68
- Friedrich Adolf Schmidt-Künsemüller: William Morris and the newer book art . Carl Wehmer (Ed.), Contributions to Books and Libraries, Vol. 4, Wiesbaden 1955, pp. 58–63
literature
- Stephen Calloway: Charles Ricketts, subtle and fantastic decorator . London 1979
- JGP Delaney: Charles Ricketts, a biography . Oxford 1990, ISBN 0-19-817212-5
- Charles Ricketts: A bibliography of the books issued by Hacon & Ricketts . Ballantyne Press, London 1904
- Maureen Watry: The Vale Press. Charles Ricketts, a publisher in earnest . New Castle, Del. 2004, ISBN 0-7123-4724-0