#mark arman

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Typography Tuesday

Last month we presented some printer's flowers and electrotype cuts from from Printing from Metal and Wood, handprinted in 1985 by English type and printing enthusiast Mark Arman at his Workshop Press in Thaxted, Essex, in an edition of 145 copies signed by the author/printer. Today we display some of the diverse type specimens from this book.

The subtitle of the book is, Using Hand Presses and 18th & 19th Century Types, Blocks, Electors, and Decorations; The Story of an Obsession with Printing. The content of the book is clearly idiosyncratic to Arman's approach to printing. He writes:

In Paragraphs on Printing, Bruce Rogers said 'The best printing follows traditional lines because printing is a conservative as well as a preservative art.' By making this modest collection of types and blocks, and illustrating them here, I have accepted this principle. Some biographical details, and a few personal anecdotes have been included, for they help explain how printing became an obsession, and why this book had to be printed. It is hoped it will give some pleasure.

Our copy, another donation from the estate of our late friend Dennis Bayuzick, once belonged to the printing historian Richard E. Huss and bears his bookplate.

View other books from the estate of Dennis Bayuzick.

View other posts on work by Mark Arman.

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View more Typography Tuesday posts.

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Typography Tuesday

Here are some arrangements of printer's flowers, a few electrotype cuts, and a wood engraving from Printing from Metal and Wood, handprinted in 1985 by English type and printing enthusiast Mark Arman at his Workshop Press in Thaxted, Essex, in an edition of 145 copies signed by the author/printer. Arman writes:

The purpose of this book is to illustrate and use different type faces , to experiment with those of the 19th century which today would be unfashionable, and to re-create an interest in those wood blocks, fleurons and electros, which were in use at the turn of the century. It is a book concerned with styles of printing and design which are no longer popular, but it is a book which owes its very existence to the author's delight in printing, type, layout and design.

Our copy of this book is another donation from the estate of our late friend Dennis Bayuzick.

View other books from the estate of Dennis Bayuzick.

View other posts on work by Mark Arman.

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Typography Tuesday

Fleurons or Printers' Flowers have been a prominent element of typographic tradition at least since the early 16th century, especially those of designer-punchcutter Robert Granjon. They became less used over the 17th century, but were revived in the mid-18th century when Pierre Simon Fournier introduced an entirely new style of printers' flowers. Soon after, their use enhanced as a fashion for classical typography changed the concept of type decoration at the end of the 18th century. The revival of fine typographic design in the late 19th century spurred a proliferation of new fleuron designs in the 20th century that has not abated to this day.

Fleurons may be combined in innumerable ways to create ornate and intricate typographic patterns. Today we show a few of those patterns from Fleurons, Their Place in History & in Print, written, designed, printed, and bound in 1988 by English type and printing enthusiast Mark Arman at his Workshop Press in Thaxted, Essex, in an edition of 170 copies signed by the author/printer. This book is another from the recent of from the estate of our late friend Dennis Bayuzick. Of printing fleurons, Arman writes:

. . . they can be grouped in a variety of combinations: elaborate arrangements are possible, and great enjoyment may be had exploring their possibilities. When I realised all this I began a collection of type decorations which, in the past seven years, has grown considerably. Part of the enjoyment has been finding specific designs. . . . All my 19th century decorations have come from old printing houses which have ceased to operate, or have gone over to litho, so they make a very mixed assortment. . . . [These] are illustrated in the following pages and the text gives a brief account of the craftsmen who created the design.

View other posts on decorative type patterns by Mark Arman.

View other books from the collection of Dennis Bayuzick.

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Typography Tuesday

PRINTERS’ FLOWERS

A few weeks ago we presented a specimen sheet of historic types collected and printed by the English type and printing enthusiast Mark Arman. This week we are showing some specimen sheets of printers’ flowers collected by Arman and handprinted in an edition of 1000 at his Workshop Press in Thaxted, Essex, for his article on “A Collection of Printers’ Flowers” published in Matrix 9, Winter 1989, pp. 92-96. Of his collecting of these type ornaments, Arman writes:

The collector is attracted to those things that are difficult to find: the magpie delights in accumulating treasures; what is known to be rare is prized. Thus the typographer who begins with an interest in type is in danger of becoming a collector, and his discoveries may lead him to collecting printers’ flowers. This is precisely what happened to me, as my collection began modestly in 1949 and now has developed beyond the confines of reason.

Arman has printed a description below each specimen. Shown here from top to bottom are:

1.) 15th-century-style arabesques and moresques recut in the 20th century by Monotype Corporation. 2.) 18th-century Fournier-style type ornaments recut by Monotype. 3.) Late 19th-century decorative type issued by Stephenson Blake. 4.) 20th-century decorative type designed by Percy Smith and Edward Bawden for the Curwen Press.

Arman’s process for making these 2-color prints is to raise the non-black type above the other type by placing 3-pt. leads underneath them, so that during inking only the raised type gets inked and may be printed in red or blue. After printing the full run, those printed type forms are removed and replaced by quads and other spacers which rest below the type that remains, so that only that type gets inked and printed in black on the next run.

Matrix was printed by John and Rosalind Randle at the Whittington Press in England, and is a donation from our friend Jerry Buff.

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Typography Tuesday

Mark Arman was an English type and printing enthusiast who late in life turned to collecting type, prints, and printing equipment, establishing his own Workshop Press at Thaxted, Essex. Before this, he had made a career in Customs and Excise. After his move to Thaxted in 1958, he was active in the restoration of several historic buildings in the town, for which he was awarded an MBE. In his retirement he took up pottery and fine printing, amassing an eclectic collection of historic typefaces. His Workshop Press produced many broadsides and several now-scarce books on type, type design, letterpress printing, and relief prints.

In 1990, Arman designed and printed this 29 x 45 cm specimen sheet of some of his historic typefaces for inclusion in his article “A Collection of Types” published in Matrix 10, Winter 1990, pp. 143-145. Of his collection, Arman writes:

Many nineteenth-century founders’ types, often in odd sizes, are included in my collection and had they not been rescued and stored they would have been melted down long ago. . . .

Mural . . . a particularly spindly face produced by the Caslon Foundry in the 1880s, was difficult to use attractively. It has so many peculiarities . . . .

Black Letter always has interesting possibilities, and Light English Text, still easily obtainable in Monotype, is no exception. . . .  and as the name implies, when setting is close with minimal spacing between lines, a pleasing effect is achieved. . . .

Then there are the ‘specials,’ Gill Floriated, Old Face Open, Imprint Shadow, Chisel, Fry’s Ornamented and an assorted collection of nineteenth-century initials. Quite charming specimen pages can be created with such material, particularly if they are embellished with suitable borders and type decorations. . . .

Union Pearl, has a fascinating history and is still produced from the original matrices. . . . I traced the ownership of the matrices from the time they were made for the Grover Foundry in 1690 to the present day.

Mark Arman died in 2007 at the age of 93.

Matrix was printed by John and Rosalind Randle at the Whittington Press in England, and is a donation from our friend Jerry Buff.

View more posts from Matrix.

View other posts relating to the Whittington Press.

View our other Typography Tuesday posts