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Vancouver 1949-62 Montreal New York & New Haven Vancouver Redux News & Notes |
| A bibliography of the extensive Canadiana collection of Montreal businessman Lawrence Lande, donated to McGill University in the early 1960s. This is the first book produced at the Richard Pennington Printing Office of McGill University Press (see Notes, below), and perhaps the most extravagent - and significant - piece of letterpress publishing in Canadian history. The design, typography, and overall planning were by Robert Reid.
Limitation: This bibliography is the first publication of the Lawrence Lande Foundation for Canadian Historical Research, and has been printed in an edition of 950 signed copies, of which this is No. --- [The copies were numbered by Robert, and Lande signed below.]
Colophon: This is the first book produced at the Richard Pennington Printing Office of McGill University Press. The design and typography are by Robert R. Reid. The text was printed letterpress by Ib Kristensen. The type face is Monotype Bulmer set by Fast Typesetters Limited, Montreal. The negatives and plates for the illustrations were made by Klaus Unterberger, and were printed by offset lithography at Bopar Limited, Montreal. The text paper was made to specification by L. Guarro Casas, Barcelona, and the insets are printed on hand made papers from J. Barcham Green, England, from Cartiera Milano, Amalfi, and on various mouldmades from Guarro. Copies numbered 1 to 75 have been hand bound in full leather by Vianney Bélanger at his bindery in Montreal. Copies numbered 76 to 950 have been cased in quarter leather by Russell-Rutter Company Inc. in New York. The slip-cases for the latter were made by Boxcraft Limited, Montreal. This copy is bound in ---
Description: Folio. 301 pp, featuring 177 reproductions and facsimiles (some folding &/or tipped-in). Total of 2,300 items described.
A 16-page prospectus, commensurate with the book's design and production, was issued.
Notes: The colophon ended with the type of skin used for binding written in Robert's calligraphic hand: Oasis Niger for the deluxe copies, Pigskin for the quarter-bound. For the 75 full-bound copies, Bélanger used a variety of skin colors selected by Robert from England, and two different designs. One had the front board covered in gilt fleur-de-lys and blind rules; the second was simpler, with fleur-de-lys in blind extending from the spine to the board edges. Both styles are shown at right. A small number of out-of-series copies (estimated at no more than a dozen) were specially bound for the binder's use in full leather with leather inlays; one of these is shown as right.
"Every time Lawrence came to check on how things were going, I'd tell him more of my thoughts, and he would say 'Wonderful...do it.' Presuming Lande was paying for all this, I merrily went ahead, ordering paper from Spain, leather from England, the works. When the bills came in there was hell to pay, because it turned out the press was footing the bill. But what a beautiful book! Nothing like it will ever be produced in Canada again. I say that because it represented the last of the good old days of fine letterpress printing, and since there had never been any fine letterpress printing in Canada to begin with, that book is it.
"But how did the Lande book become such a fine example of letterpress printing? Since there was no printer in Canada capable of printing such a book, we set up our own private press at McGill, underneath Redpath Hall. We bought a beautiful Heidelberg cylinder press from the Toronto Star and hired Ib Kristensen to come from Vancouver to run it. He printed the book two pages at a time to preserve the deckles on the gorgeous Guarro paper. Then he took the sheets home where he and his wife folded and gathered them into signatures and books, from whence they were shipped to New York to be bound by Russell-Rutter in quarter pigskin and Dutch linen I found in Holland....I went to England to pick out the skins and seventy-five copies were handbound by a local man, Vianney Bélanger, in various colours of full Oasis Niger and some in smooth, velvety calfskins, all gold tooled with fleur de lis all over them. Magnificent! Wonderful! Thrilling! Life never gets better than that." Excerpt from Reid's Leaves (Heavenly Monkey, 2001). Reprinted with permission. Return to the main Montreal page. HEAVENLY MONKEY |
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