LEC Letterpress

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LEC Letterpress

1Jobasha
Août 25, 2021, 5:30 am

Is there a list of LEC which are not Letterpress? I know that initially all of them were Letterpress and again later on when the LEC became more luxurious, but I believe there were a number of books in between not printed letterpress, such as Sir Gawain.

2Django6924
Août 26, 2021, 1:05 am

I have not seen a list, and the one LEC which admits in the ML to being printed entirely offset is the 1979 Lyrical Poems of François Villon. That there were others is entirely likely, but the ones in my possession are all letterpress.

The Gawain is another matter: per the ML, the Middle English text proved a problem in that to match the 16 point letterpress of the modern translation, the Goudy 30 had to be "photographically reduced" from a larger size typeset which was available. This was then made into a "special film, and it was from this film that--by means of a mid-twentieth century technological development" that the Middle English text was composed. "Special film"? "Mid-twentieth century technological development"? Sounds like photopolymer plates to me. The first photopolymer-based letterpress plate was used by, of all fine press establishments(!), Time magazine in 1957. If the Gawain ME text were printed from photopolymer plates, then it was printed letterpress.

I believe this to be the case because I can feel the type indentations when I run my fingers over the type on both texts. The rag paper feels like mould-made paper and is quite thick so the print indentations haven't deformed the opposite side of the page, which you see in LECs such as the Grabhorn Robinson Crusoe.

3AMindForeverVoyaging
Août 26, 2021, 9:12 am

I believe One World is not letterpress because of the smooth paper used for the photographs.

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