A delicate letterpress hand-bound book of Monotype borders, printed on fine layered Tengucho Japanese paper. Seven pages, typeset in Monotype borders 1346, 1347, 1348, 1349, with title & colophon in 18pt Caslon. The book & cover have been single colour printed in scarlet, on natural tengucho paper layered to 22 gsm. Each editioned copy measures 6.5 x 6.0 cm & comes in a 90 gsm crowsnest wrapper. This edition consists of sixteen copies, fifteen of which are available for purchase. No further copies will be added to the edition.

The book is a celebration of the borders designed by Jack Townend for the Monotype Corporation. The borders were designed by Townend & released by the Corporation in 1958.

Jack Townend was born in Bingley, West Yorkshire in March 1918, being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1948. Townend was employed between 1949-51 to teach lithography composition, design & wood-engraving at the Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, University of Oxford. Between 1952-1961, the period in which these borders were designed, Townend was teaching graphic design, lithography & printmaking at the school. Enid Marx is also listed as teaching at Rushkin in 1952-53.

Townend is also known for writing & illustrating a number of children’s books: A Railway ABC (1942), Jenny the Jeep (1944), Ben (1944), Story About Ducks (1945), The Clothes We Wear (1947) & Nature (1953). In later life Jack Townend returned to his home town of Bingley, he died on 15 May 2005, at the age of 87.

Each book was printed on a Farley No.11 proofing press.

The borders were cast by Pat Randle at Nomad Letterpress / Whittington Press, Gloucestershire & Jessie Reich at the Three Ton Bridge Foundry of Skaneateles, New York.

© Red Eel Press 2021