An occasional newsletter about forthcoming books and events
 

February 2025

In this newsletter . . .

a new title: Twelve poems from the Manyoshu

an update on Plates for a Herbal

a pointer to stuff for sale

A collection of love poems translated from the Japanese by Clare Pollard and Penny Boxall

Our regular readers will perhaps remember the Great FedEx Fiasco, when FedEx 'lost', en route from Canada, a large trunk containing many hundreds of sheets of handmade Japanese paper, much of it beautifully printed with Naoko Matsubara's woodcuts. Thanks to their incompetence we lost a great deal of money as well as the fine papers and fine printing.

Commissioning a complete reprinting of the woodcuts was financially out of the question, so I had thought to do second best by doing something similar to the book as originally planned but printing Naoko's woodcuts digitally. After a number of tests I've decided that I cannot achieve the brilliance and colour of the original prints and so I have abandoned the project completely.

However I was reluctant to also drop the translations of the poems that Clare Pollard and Penny Boxall had so carefully prepared in anticipation of the original edition. Hence this new booklet containing those translations.

Each of the twelve poems, the title page, and the colophon page are printed on folded sheets of a Japanese paper, which are then sewn between folded sheets of a hikkake patterned paper that we brought back from Echizen on our first visit to Japan in 2012. The texts are all hand-set in Optima. You can watch a video of the entire booklet on our Instagram channel.

On the title page I have used a delightful woodcut that Naoko sent us many years ago and which seemed entirely appropriate here.

There are just forty copies of which some are for sale at £40 each plus shipping. If you would like a copy you can either email us here or buy through our online shop.

This book is now at the binders

Our a pre-publication price of £350 still applies, with the price going to £480 on publication which will be around Easter 2025 (plus shipping in both cases). If you have not previously made a firm reservation but would like to take advantage of the pre-publication price, please contact us or order a copy at our shop.

Plates for a Herbal will be one of three new books which we shall have on show at the forthcoming Oxford Fine Press Book Fair (3-4 May 2025).

A timely spring clean is generating some items for sale from our shelves

Just e-mail us to let us know what you would like to buy and we will be in touch to agree price and how to get it to you. Shipping will be extra at cost. We can supply photographs - just ask. First come first served.

You can also find this list on our website, where I will try to keep it up to date as things go so please check there first.  I might also be adding to it with more books and some printshop stuff depending on my decluttering coefficient.

• Illustrated periodicals of the 1860s
  Simon Cooke. VG. £10
• Specimens of faces - Linotype - Matrix information
  VG. £20
• One-line specimens of Ludlow typefaces, rules etc
  Good. £10
• Beyond Decoration, The illustrations of John Everett Millais
  Paul Goldman. VG. £10
• The Times Printing Number (reprint)
  Bookplate of Tanya and Hans Schmoller. VG. £40
• The romance of the  Amalgamated Press, 1925
  VG. £20
• Specimen book of 'Monophoto' filmsetter faces - two volumes, ring binders
  VG. £30
• Delittle's Wood Type Specimens (1971)
  Battered but seemingly complete. £75
• A book of nursery rhymes
  The first book from Incline Press in 1993. 97/260. VG. £150.
• Printing History
  (Journal of the American Printing History Association) Issues 22, 24, 25, 26, and 31/32. All VG. £10 each.
• The Daniel Press
  (Printed at the Daniel Press in Fell types, 1921). Backstrip off but present, usual paper discolouring, a suitable project for rebinding. £20.
• Ultrabold
  (Journal of St Bride Library) Issue 5 (Autumn 2008). VG. £10.
• A fount of 24pt Saxon Black
  6A 11a. Foundry type from Stephenson Blake. In good condition. £25.
• The Missing Term Catalogue
  Published by Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1987. In good condition. £5.
• Antigone
  An ex-display copy. Very slightly tired. £20.
• On the architectural history of Ely Cathedral
  Revd D. J. Stewart (John van Voorst, 1868). Hardcover, purple embossed cloth-covered boards, gilt spine lettering, spine a little dark, and a little roughing at top and bottom of spine, dusty on outer edges, inside clean and tight with very little foxing. £30.
• Carmina
  Catullus (Tauchnitz, 1829). Editio Stereotypa ex Nova Tabularum Impressione emendatissima. 12° 268pp. Half-leather with marbled paper on boards, much rubbing externally but nice and clean internally. £25.

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Copyright © Martyn Ould 2025