Robert R. Reid Printing & Book Design

Robert's first book, a reprint of the first (non-government) book printed in British Columbia.

Limitation: 110 copies of this book have been printed and the type distributed. This is copy number . [Note: like many of Reid's books, there is a limitation statement at the front, bearing the copy's number, and a colophon at the back.]

Colophon: [press device in red & black] This is the first book issued from the private press of Robert R. Reid, who produced it for his personal enjoyment. Hand-set in 12 point Caslon old style and printed two pages at a time on Hurlbut Cortlea antique paper with an 8 x 12 foot-press. Marbling executed by the printer. Bound by hand at the shop of Mr. M.I. Sochasky.

Description: 6.25 x 8.25 inches, 93 pp. Quarter black leather with marbled paper over boards. Deckle fore edge, top edge trimmed. Grey endsheets. Red leather label on spine: The / Fraser / Mines / Vindicated / [decoration] Waddington. Gilt rules on label, seven pairs of blind rules on spine. Issued in a grey flannel slipcase/pouch made by Reid's mother. Frontis portrait drawing of Waddington by George Swinton.

Issue price: C$10.00

Notes: "The desire to print a book upon me one day in 1947, as I was climbing the steps to the University of British Columbia library's reading room. In a glass case under the opposite staircase I saw an open book showing a gorgeous red initial letter on a page of beautifully printed type. I went back down, looked at it, and said to myself, 'I want to print a book.'

"As I had been printing since the age of nine, and had all the equipment I needed in the basement, this was not an idle wish. But what to print? I asked Kaye Lamb, the university librarian, and he suggested reprinting Alfred Waddington's Fraser Mines Vindicated, one of the first books printed in British Columbia. Though it was then less than one hundred years since the book's publication, only a handful of copies were known, so reprinting it seemed a worthy endeavor. I spent the next two years copying the text from the university's original, setting it in 12-point Caslon, and printing it two-up on my 8 x 12 Westman & Baker treadle press. For four dollars I had the copies bound in quarter leather with boards covered in paper I had marbled myself, and by 1949 was ready to sell the edition of one hundred copies for ten dollars each.

"I sent a copy to the Rounce & Coffin Club's Western Book Show in Los Angeles that year, and received an Award of Merit. To celebrate, a friend and I decided to drive down in his 1938 Ford coupe. We decided to stop in San Francisco along the way, it being the nearest place with any active community of fine printers & private presses. It could not have been a more encouraging experience for a new printer."
Excerpt from A Young Printer in San Francisco 1949 published by Heavenly Monkey 2007. Reprinted with permission.

An 8-page prospectus was issued for Fraser Mines. Two copies of the book were issued with separate personalized presentation pamphlets, one to Kaye Lamb, the other to a friend of Reid's. These consisted of 3 sheets (12 pages) from the book, including the facsimile of the first edition's title page, sewn into a paper wrap with a printed label on the front. A detail of the label is shown below (the only publication of the Dilettante Press).

Return to the main Vancouver 1949-62 page.

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