An Easter Ephemera Eggtravaganza

I was idling away some time browsing through a display folder and thought I'd upload a few nice things. All are identifiable except the Birthday Song for Magnus which was printed by Vivian Ridler at the Perpetua Press; and the menu which was printed by Gaylord Schanilec at Midnight paper Sales.

Ah, lovely stuff! So charming, the Incline Press piece, as their works usually are. And love that typeface in the Perpetua Press piece!

I was racking my brains for an Easter ephemeron to share here, and then I remembered this. Can't fault its relevance to Easter, although whether it’s an ephemeron or not might be more debatable.

>3 BillWoodbridge: That initial is absolutely exquisite. Stanbrook Abbey I presume? Even though O'Connor was more associated with the St Dominic's circle it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen from that press.

Yes, Stanbrook Abbey Press from 1959. Fr O’Connor was a well-known visitor to Stanbrook as well as Ditchling, although Dame Hildelith’s time as printer, and with it the press’s revival, only began after his death. One of his main friends at Stanbrook was D. Werburg Welch, who did this historiated initial (you can see Gill's influence). Either Dame Hildelith or Margaret Adams did the gilt ‘S’ (says David Butcher) – I’m inclined to think this copy is probably the latter.

>3 BillWoodbridge: >4 duncjl: Jesus dies upon the Cross, John O'Connor, Worcester : Stanbrook Abbey Press, 1959, 40 x 32 cm. One sheet of Millbourn Lexpar handmade vellum paper, printed on one side, in a blank Millbourn paper cover. Set in Monotype Spectrum and featuring a large initial S in polished gold by Margaret Adams with an original miniature drawing by Dame Werburg Welch. Mounted on a cardboard card with a small calligraphed colophon on the back. With a protective sheet of handmade paper and one of pink tissue paper.

>6 Transfixed: That, unless I’m much mistaken, is the translated listing of this piece written by Paul Snijders of the Dutch dealer Fokas Holthuis in 2022, when they offered the only copy I’ve ever seen on the market in thirty years (I had acquired my own copy privately from a collector some years before that). Even so, the memory is still painful - I only saw the list after it had already sold! Were you the lucky purchaser by any chance?

>7 BillWoodbridge: No. I just dared to put it here as a matter of interest and without proper attribution because I was in a hurry. It's an interesting piece!

>3 BillWoodbridge: Stunning! Thanks for sbaring these rare treasures.

A small contribution – a rarity, perhaps, but not in the traditional sense – from an afterschool program for youth put on by the Petrescu Press in Sibiu, Romania. The egg is one of a few designs they had available, taken from an ethnographic book on Easter egg designs. Printed on handmade paper by the Petrescus with a turn of the century Italian proof press. I'll claim it was printed damp, but only because it was kind of raining the day I pulled the print. :)