St James Park Press

St James Park Press Publishing hand-made illustrated letterpress books

Happy New Year! I hope everyone rings out the wild bells and rings in the nobler modes of life, for the year ahead. Ther...
01/01/2026

Happy New Year! I hope everyone rings out the wild bells and rings in the nobler modes of life, for the year ahead.

There’s a lot happening in 2026 as the press marks over a decade of printing:

THE BEAUTY OF BYRNE is slowly (very slowly) drawing to a finish… with the story of Homer’s Cyclops or ONE-EYED GIANT going on the press as soon as it does. A lavish PARADISE LOST prospectus will also be in preparation to showcase the upcoming edition.

This month I plan to add a ‘shop’ to my website, with a limited number of smaller works - printed alongside the larger subscribed editions - for sale, including: METAL, a catalogue of all the metal type held at the Press; EPHEMERA 2015-2025, a large boxed edition of only 7 copies, collecting all the Press ephemera together from the first decade of the Press, with some extra bits going in; as well as some commissioned works, including a bundle of six CHESTNUT PRESS publications printed at the Press between 2019 to date, including the newest work finished only weeks ago; a BERRYHILL PRESS edition featuring original art by Ralph Steadman (longtime collaborator with Hunter S. Thompson); original children’s literature from the BEST DOG PRESS, and more.

As the newly appointed BODLEIAN PRINTER-IN-RESIDENCE, I will also be finalising two smaller editions through the Bodleian in Oxford, both mixing together Risographic artwork with letterpress printing, under the banner of the ‘St James Park Press at the Bodleian’… photos will follow as work progresses.

And in February, I will be travelling to showcase work at the 10th CODEX Book Art Fair & Symposium - so hope to see anyone who can make it there!

Sketching out designs and possibilities to lead up to the final print and then seeing it as a print is a fantastic and s...
12/06/2025

Sketching out designs and possibilities to lead up to the final print and then seeing it as a print is a fantastic and satisfying process. And yet it always comes as a surprise when it happens.

It’s very lucky that as a result of past acquisitions from fellow presses, I can replicate important aspects of Byrne’s ...
10/06/2025

It’s very lucky that as a result of past acquisitions from fellow presses, I can replicate important aspects of Byrne’s Euclid with hand-set metal type and ornaments; my foundry Caslon type from the Fleece Press, my Caslon black-letter equivalent from the Old School Press, and the (monotype) ornaments copied from Caslon’s Border No. 62 from the Evergreen Press. What are the odds!

Adding the blue layer, to highlight in Byrne’s Euclid both: the swash letters used alongside their italic counterparts (...
06/06/2025

Adding the blue layer, to highlight in Byrne’s Euclid both: the swash letters used alongside their italic counterparts (in later iterations further swash letters were added to Caslon’s Old Face); as well as the roman long s.

Continuing the exploration of Caslon’s Old Face in Byrne’s Euclid, alongside the normal roman (as in the T here), the Ch...
05/06/2025

Continuing the exploration of Caslon’s Old Face in Byrne’s Euclid, alongside the normal roman (as in the T here), the Chiswick Press printed using the wonderful long s, here in italic. Sweepingly winsome.

Although Byrne’s Euclid was set in Caslon’s Old Face, the compositors at the Chiswick Press (who printed the edition) ha...
04/06/2025

Although Byrne’s Euclid was set in Caslon’s Old Face, the compositors at the Chiswick Press (who printed the edition) had quite the field day when setting the text, using no less than 5 versions of the upper case letter Q, including one that looks like it was borrowed from a Baskerville cabinet. Here the long tailed Caslon Q in black is printed alongside a couple of those variations, in blue.

Caslon’s Old Face is the type used for Byrne’s 1847 edition of Euclid’s Elements (or to be more precise, the edition pub...
03/06/2025

Caslon’s Old Face is the type used for Byrne’s 1847 edition of Euclid’s Elements (or to be more precise, the edition published from the Chiswick Press). Although Caslon is not everyone’s cup of tea, there is no denying that this long tailed Q - printed in enlarged fashion - is rather bonny.

Adding a full alphabet of Mary Byfield initials around the larger coloured A. Byrne did not actually need to use every l...
30/05/2025

Adding a full alphabet of Mary Byfield initials around the larger coloured A. Byrne did not actually need to use every letter of the alphabet for his Euclid edition, so it’s nice to have the full complement here.

Adding the colour red underneath Mary Byfield’s letter. This wasn’t done in the original edition, but it helps to highli...
29/05/2025

Adding the colour red underneath Mary Byfield’s letter. This wasn’t done in the original edition, but it helps to highlight the letterform itself, as opposed to the ornamentation around it.

Mary Byfield was an illustrator during the first half of the Nineteenth Century. Alongside all manner of engravings for ...
28/05/2025

Mary Byfield was an illustrator during the first half of the Nineteenth Century. Alongside all manner of engravings for various works, she cut the initials for the Chiswick Press that adorn Byrne’s Euclid. This letter is printed as an enlarged version of the smaller initials cut for Byrne’s edition.

The final red addition to complete the title page print run… this image has become synonymous with Byrne’s Euclid, used ...
27/05/2025

The final red addition to complete the title page print run… this image has become synonymous with Byrne’s Euclid, used not only for the title page, but also on the cover of the original binding, as well as within the book itself.

The layers of colour for the title-page continuing to grow… this time a blue colour run.
23/05/2025

The layers of colour for the title-page continuing to grow… this time a blue colour run.

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