Hand Presses and Rare Books

We came across an article in the University of Toronto Magazine, referring to the Massey College Bibliography Room where students learn about 19th century printing techniques and decided to investigate for ourselves.

Writmount Publishing Inc. was privileged to receive a tour of the College’s, Bibliography Room which is part of the Robertson Davies Library, to learn about old hand presses and how printing was achieved in the late 1800's, and to view some of the rare books in the collection.

The college printer and custodian of the bibliography room is Kit MacNeil. Kit completed a Master of Fine Arts Degree which led to a unique calling, and one of engagement with enthusiasm and passion.

Kit is charged with instructing students from many arenas who attend the University of Toronto, in far ranging book-related and interconnected disciplines of study such as linguistics, art, science and technology, and the history of books.

We were introduced to several printing presses, the older hand-operated type as well as newer cylindrical printers and collections of metal and wooden (larger printing) typesetting elements which are used for printing. Essentially, ink is rolled onto the typeset plate and paper is pressed against the inked letters to create the printed page. The process can be repeated and eventually when sown together, books are created.

A simple explanation of printing involved how a "quarto" would have been made.

This involves inking a metal plate, pressing paper onto it through the hand “press”, printing one side of paper and when several of these are ready the other side is printed with an accordingly different typeset plate. To ensure that the print on the reverse side is aligned, the paper is pinned onto guides protruding from the frame that holds it. The last step is to symmetrically fold the paper in four, hence the name quarto, to form eight smaller printed pages.

In the past, quartos would be stitched together and any folds at the top of pages would be slit to create single pages, which could then be turned and read

as with a normal book.

Add a little bit of body text

Kit and Robbie explained and demonstrated how a "quarto" would have been made. This involves inking a metal plate, pressing paper onto it, printing one side of paper and when several of these are ready the other side is printed with an accordingly different metal typeset plate. To ensure that the print on the reverse side is aligned, the paper is pinned onto guides set into the frame that holds it. The last step is to symmetrically fold the paper in four, hence the name quarto, to form eight smaller printed pages.

While we were unable to see an actual page being printed, Kit has a display board where samples of items printed, using various presses, typesetting media and techniques, are exhibited. We marvelled at the peacock feather! How was that accomplished?

Typesetting letters to create a metal plate with words is arduous indeed. One must start from the right margin adding letters, working to the left, essentially building words backwards, so that after printing when turned over to be viewed as a printed page, margins are as they should appear, left on left and right on right.

While this is difficult to explain in writing, a look at the photo to the left of a typeset plate, will show the letters towards the bottom for the word "Print" as indeed reversed.

We suspect the slow pace of typesetting may be therapeutic, having a calming effect, by blocking out all other thoughts and stresses, allowing the mind to focus and concentrate.

Never having been exposed to book production at such a level, our thoughts wandered to days when this job was taken on by those who did this work for a living and to the number of copies that had to be produced to circulate to the general public in small towns and big cities, and we conclude that this is astonishing and astounding.

Our second presenter was Robbie Steele,

a PhD student, who hopes to engage in future pursuits in academia. We were guided through some of the books from the Rare Book Collection at Massey College.

The presentation was on the fascinating topic of the Victorian books.

Assembled for viewing were works such as a first edition printing of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit

and The Art of Etching by Alfred Ashley.

Leafing through pages from each, Robbie briefly mentioned background on the book and author.

This photo shows how Dickens' works were produced in serial form. Little Dorrit was originally published between 1855-1857, each booklet in the stack shown below being another in the series. Robbie also explained that in Victorian times different authors used certain colours for their covers, so that from a distance readers would recognize a particular author's work.

These were done in "Dickens Blue".

Little Dorrit First Edition by Charles Dickens

Next, we delved into the way in which engraving plates were created, by carving out detailed drawings known as etchings, on a copper plate, a soft metal, to create a place to house the ink which would then be transferred to paper. These images are spectacular (as in the next photograph), when one considers the detail.

The Art of Etching by Alfred Ashley

Etchings were used as illustrations in many books around the time, adding to the book's ability to enhance a story. Writers and illustrators formed an alliance which continues to this day, even in the digital world, invoking and augmenting one's use of imagination.

In closing, we would sincerely like to thank both Kit and Robbie for taking some of their valuable time to help us become acquainted with printing, book and illustration creation.

In a future blog post, we will cover other aspects of printing, such as the cylindrical presses, wood engraving and illustration in colour.

Writmount Publishing Inc. is delighted that the knowledge and insight gained from such a brief visit will provide background for our publishing endeavours.