Historical research

As a student of the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication of Reading University, I cannot avoid referring to some historical interests in the area of graphic design.

Handmoulds

A few years ago, there was some interest in the conservation and description of handmoulds. I made a small website about this.

Together with Patrick Goossens we have catalogued and photographed the ‘Vanderborght collection’ of handmoulds in the Plantin Moretus Museum in Antwerp. An article will be published in Femke Speelberg and Elizabeth Savage (eds.): Printing things: blocks, plates, and stones 1400 - 1900.

Wooden presses

There were plans to republish Moxon’s manual. In combination with the relocation of the ‘Amsterdam reconstruction’ of a wooden press to Leiden, I made some illustrations of a common press. These have been published in 2013 in Bibliologia.

[Of course, the BBC documentary ‘Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg press’ provides a far more interesting introduction. Many contacts from Reading University feature prominently.]

At the moment, I’m working on a global survey of wooden common presses. A first sketch of this census can be seen on Census. There are also two small websites about illustrations of common presses, and illustrations of rolling presses.