I've been trying to find five minutes to take a look in our local War on Want bookshop for weeks, months even. But everytime I try it's closed. You see, it's got this little corner crammed full of vintage Penguins. At last, on Saturday, I got the chance and yes, found a few of the little fellas; soon to be Flickr-ed.
And then I spotted this in a glass cabinet; going for three whole pounds.
It was printed in 1904, when, as this bit explains, "the Point System [was] gradually coming into use", which seems very odd today but of course there was another system that we don't talk about now, in the dark and distant past; when type sizes were given obscure names: Excelsior (3 point), Brilliant (3.5 point), Semi-Brevier (4 point)...then there's the audacious Bourgeois (9 point) and the mighty Canon (44 point).
It's basically a printer's manual, covering probably everything you'd need to know from the production of type, through its composition, making up, imposition, hand-press work, motive power (steam, gas, water or some new fangled thing called electricity that'll never catch on), machine printing, warehouse work, costing and even the choice of paper.
The book - printed at the Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham and Co., Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London - ends with ads for printing paraphernalia: paper, inks, electrotypers, book binders, composing machines and presses, of course.
A snip for three quid and a fascinating throw back to when it was all a lot slower and the world was more centred.
Do you think he's any relation to Derek (Jacobi that is)?
And are those 1904 post-its in the picture top right?
Nice centering though - I knew you'd be the man to demonstrate that good-looking centering is possible (no matter what Ben http://noisydecentgraphics.typepad.com/design/2007/05/things_i_we_hav.html says).
Posted by: davidthedesigner | 02 May 2007 at 12:43 PM
Pott, Double Pott, Foolscap and Super Royal! What great names. All we get are crud like "Super B" or "legal size" or "A3". Congratulations on your find.
Posted by: Mike Nosal | 02 May 2007 at 01:51 PM
Yeah. They make paper sizes sound 'exotic'. Just curious, how many pages does this book carry?
Posted by: gordon ling | 03 May 2007 at 11:46 AM
409 Gordon. Why?
Posted by: Richard | 03 May 2007 at 10:38 PM
Now come on Richard, you know as well as I do that no book can possible consist of 409 pages. 409 page numbers maybe, but not 409 pages. Go and count them again.
Posted by: davidthedesigner | 03 May 2007 at 11:40 PM
It looks thinner in the picture. Was just wondering because comparing the top right image with the point system page (336) just made me wonder about it.
Posted by: gordon ling | 04 May 2007 at 03:58 AM
Yes, OK, David is, as ever, quite right in pointing out my embarrassing mistake. There are in fact 412 text pages plus 8 pages of advertisments and 8 pages of paper samples. The latter being individual sheets of different paper stocks.
Posted by: Richard | 04 May 2007 at 09:26 AM