#pattern papers

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Decorative Paper Sunday 

Earlier this week we shared some typography from the Winter 1998 issue of Matrix, a typographic journal celebrated both for its content as well as its production and design. The above pattern paper samples are also from Matrix 18, printed at Whittington Press in Gloucestershire County, England by John and Rosalind Randle in an edition of 825. John and Rosalind founded the press, named after their Gloucestershire village, in 1971, producing the first edition of Matrix in 1981. 

The first collection of papers (image three above) accompanies a reprinting of the obituary of painter and designer, Enid Marx, written by art historian and scholar of architecture and design, Alan Powers. The selected papers represent four of the five Marx-designed papers published by the short lived Judd Street Gallery (run by Powers and his wife, Susanna), selected from unpublished pattern blocks in Marx’s studio. Power’s writes, “Marx’s genius for patterned design, more jazzy, risk-taking and lively than that of her male friends was as instinctive as perfect pitch.” Also included in this issue is an essay on the interaction of production and design by Marx, originally published in the February 1944 edition of Architectural Review. 

The second set of pattern papers (image four) appear alongside a review of In Praise of Patterned Papers. The 1997 publication by Incline Press collects essays on patterned papers, some of which are reprinted classics like a 1927 Paul Nash essay from The Woodcut, with some newly commissioned for the book. Reviewer David McKitterick writes:

“This remarkable book, spoiled though it is with innumerable misprints, is both a monument to a passion and a collector’s piece in itself. Much of the writing in it has a fervency and immediacy that no cold-blooded historian could match. More than ninety tipped-in examples enliven the whole volume with a sense of immediacy that no reproductions could command, allowing one both to test the weight and quality of the paper, and also to gain a much better sense of the tactile nature of so many of these papers.”

You can find more on Enid Marx from our collection here. 

Find more posts from Matrix here. 

View more Decorative Sunday posts here. 

-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[uwmspeccoll]

Decorative Paper Sunday

I’ve been excitedly waiting for this specimen book to make its way through processing and into our catalog so I can share these gorgeous decorative papers with you all. I hope some design nerds out there will share my enthusiasm. The book is A Specimen Book of Pattern Papers Designed For and in Use at the Curwen Press, published in London for the Curwen Press by The Fleuron Ltd. in 1928 in a limited edition of 220, containing 31 samples of pattern paper, with an introductory essay by artist and Curwen collaborator Paul Nash. 

From Nash’s introduction:

The papers in the following Collection are from designs reproduced by offset printing, the original key pattern being a line block from a drawing, or wood engraving … The latest designs are mostly from blocks engraved upon wood, sometimes with another colour applied either flat or grained. This notable output by an English printer is another sign of the steadily growing conviction that distinction of design is not only aesthetically, but commercially important. Every article, from the Shopman’s showcard to a motor-car, must have economy and beauty of form. It is a lesson we are learning very late, but if we can learn it intelligently, and not like parrots, we may yet recapture what has been so long lost with us, a pride in style. 

The Reverend John Curwen established the Curwen Press in 1863 in order to produce hymn sheets for his congregation, where he was responsible for popularizing the tonic sol-fa method of sight singing. John’s grandson Harold Curwen took over management of the press in 1914. Inspired by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement and invigorated by fresh design ideas after a sojourn in Leipzig, Harold led the firm in a new direction, focusing on typography, design, and collaboration with artists in print projects. The Curwen Press, together with its associates in the Design and Industries Association, were highly influential in 21st century printing and publishing in the West. 

The Curwen Press closed in 1984, but the Curwen name lives on in the Curwen Studio. The studio was established in 1958 and managed by esteemed printmaker Stanley Jones and specializes in fine art lithographic printing.

See image captions for design attributions. This book was acquired with support from the John S. Best Fund. 

You can find more Decorative Sunday posts here. 

More posts about the Curwen Press can be found here. 

-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[uwmspeccoll]

Decorative Sunday

The great American wood engraver John DePol began making patterns from wood engravings beginning in 1957 for a publication by John Anderson’s Pickering Press, and he continued to devise block-printed patterned papers sporadically for the next 40 years. The patterns shown here were designed and printed specifically for printing historian Renee I. Weber’s article “Woodcut Pattern Papers, and the Engraved Work of John DePol” in Matrix 6, Winter 1986, pp. 130-133.  

One block was cut for each pattern, printed in a number of copies, and pasted up into patterns. A zinc line block of the pattern was then made and printed letterpress from the plate. The finished product had to flow and not appear as though multiple images were pasted together. The patterns printed here include DePol’s geometric, architectural, floral, and swirled designs and are presented as his contribution to the field of decoration.

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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