Part 11 (1/2)

It is in the production of the decorative page that wood engraving asserts its supremacy still in some quarters, asthe past few years by Mr

Williaraver, typefounder, paper spirit (when not the actual handwork) of the author They are interesting to us rather as exotics; an attempt to reproduce the exact work of the past under modern conditions, conditions which render the price within reach only of a few, but they are at least a protest against the modern shams hich we are all familiar

The nineteenth-century author's love for the literature of his past has led him to imitate not only the style, but the outward aspect of old books; and by a series of frauds (to which his publisher has lent hi which appears to be what it is not

The genuine outcoht and style--of patience and leisure--seems to be treated at the end of the nineteenth century as a fashi+on to be ilass cases in the British Museum It is to be feared that the twentieth-century reader, looking back, will see few traces worth preserving, either of originality or of individuality in the work of the present

What are the facts? The typefounder of to-day takes down a Venetian writing- exactly the thick doard strokes of the reed pen, fore ”old face”; a style of letter ue in 1894, but the style and character of which belongs altogether to the past Thus, with such aids, thein a whirl ofof the Venetian scholar as deliberately as the Norwegian dons a bear-skin

[Illustration: No xxxIX

DESIGN FOR THE titLE PAGE OF THE ”HOBBY-HORSE” (SELWYN IMAGE)

(_This is a reduction by process fro_)]

The next step is to present in his book a series of so-called ”engravings,” which are not engravings but reproductions by process of old prints The ”advance of science” in producing photo-relief blocks fro press, at a s from the artistic value of the enuineness

The next step is toto be carefully ”hand-e, which was a necessity when every sheet of paper was finished by hand labour, is now ily by the bookworhened sheets can be bought by the pound in Drury-lane The worst, and last fraud (I can call it no less) that can be referred to here is, that the clothing--the ”skin of vellum”--that appropriately encloses our s, and other _debris_ That the gold illuold, and that the handsoins, cracks in half with a ”bang,” when first opened, are other matters connected with the discoveries of science, and the substitution of machinery for hand labour, which e toat the ”decorative pages” inthe achieve-out of a page” one of the lost arts, like the designing of a coin? What harmony of style do we see in an ordinary book? How many authors or illustrators of books show that they care for the ”look” of a printed page? The fact is, that thethe practice of the greatest writers of our day There are sobooks that the author takes little interest in the htsman as he is known to be, has contributed little to the _ense press of Mr Allen, at Orpington His books are well printed in the ed by exae; the hts are printed exactly like his weakest, and are all drawn out in lines together as in theof macaroni! Mr

Hamerton, artist as well as author, is content to describe the beauty of forest trees, ferns and flowers, the variety of underwood and the like (nearly every word, in an article in the _Portfolio_, referring to so the varieties pictorially on the printed page The late Lord Tennyson and other poets have been content for years to sell their song by the line, little heeding, apparently, in what guise it was given to the world

In these days the reat and small, and a letter from a friend is now often printed by a machine!

[Illustration]

[Illustration: No XL

”SCARLET POPPIES” (W J MUCKLEY)

This beautiful piece of pen work by Mr Muckley (from his picture in the Royal Acadees to reproduce well by any relief process (the pale lines having come out black); but as an example of breadth, and indication of surfaces in pen and ink, it could hardly be surpassed]

FOOTNOTES:

[22] I mention this school as a representative one; there areare studied under the same roof with success in 1894

[23] Mr Cobden Sanderson's lecture on BOOKBINDING, read before the ”Arts and Crafts Society,” is orth the attention of book lovers

CHAPTER VII

AUTHOR, ILlustRATOR, AND PUBLISHER

Let us now consider shortly the Author, the Illustrator, and the Publisher, and their influence on the appearance and production of a book If it be impossible in these days (and, in spite of the efforts of Mr Williaenuine book in all its details, it see in ay the author can stamp it with his own individuality; also to what extent he is justified inuse of modern appliances