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a note on progress on
The Daniel
Press in Frome
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relating the
early days of the first private press
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by David Chambers
and Martyn Ould
perhaps the first
half of 2011
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With some alarm I see that the last notice I wrote for this was nearly two years
ago suggesting publication last year. Gulp. For new readers and those who have
perhaps forgotten, I should repeat a little of what I said before as well as
bring the story up-to-date - we have not been idle!
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The books that Henry Daniel printed and published at Worcester College in Oxford
from his 'Daniel Press' are
relatively well known and by and large still to be had.
But in his bibliography of the Daniel Press, Falconer Madan also covered the less known output of
the Daniel
family from their home in Frome, Somerset. This domestic press dated from
Henry's early years and was picked up by two of his brothers, Eustace and
William, while he was away at school and later studying in London and then
Oxford. After Henry had left home and established himself, and his press, at
Worcester College the brothers and their father continued printing small items,
in particular for the church at which Daniel's father was vicar (a post that
Eustace was later to take over). Some were clearly juvenile and amateur works,
but much of it was ephemeral material for use in running the church. They
include nine items that Madan refers to as 'books'
and also hundreds of other items that are classed under the heading of 'Frome
minor pieces' (of which some are but 'minima'), but, in contrast to the Oxford books, these are as good as unknown and almost
never seen. |
Henry's father was
vicar of Holy Trinity, Frome and their home was the Georgian vicarage next door,
a fine house now a private residence. Daniel and his brothers and father printed a large number
of items for the church's daily affairs as well as items for more general
consumption including bookplates for over fifty family members and friends.
David Chambers and I have tracked down, examined, and catalogued nearly 1,000
individual items in seven
substantial collections of the Frome output, and, taken together, they are
providing us with insights into 'The Daniel Press in Frome' as well as allowing
us to add at least seventy-five hitherto unrecorded items to Madan's inventory.
Our new title will, we hope, redress the balance and provide some insights not
only into the early work of a formative private press but also the role of an
amateur press in its social setting. |
We are now well
advanced with the text and have reached the point where those niggly small
points need to be sorted and references checked. We have taken the opportunity to provide more
information on the printers and edition sizes of many items, information that
Madan omitted from his bibliography. |
The edition will
probably be 150 copies and the text about 72pp with, I hope, a great many
reproductions of
this rarely-to-be-seen material, some items existing in - as far as we have
found - but one or two copies. It will be printed in 12pt Caslon, possibly on
a small stock of T Edmonds pale-blue laid that I acquired some years back. The book
will match Madan's bibliography in size, and be bound quarter cloth with paper
on the boards and a paper spine label. |
Realistically, I think publication will be mid-2011 and I hope we can send out
more precise details, including price, later this year.
Expressions of interest gratefully received. |
