- William Morris and the Kelmscott Press sparked a movement
of small book presses in England,
Europe, and the United States.
His focus on quality limited editions
with Classic and Medieval content appealed
to a growing group of printers and typographers disenchanted
with the cheap mass-produced books
and magazines of the late 19th century.
These small presses: Vale Press, Essex House Press,
and Doves Press initially adopted Morris's techniques
and ideas.
Some, like Charles Ashbee who started the Essex House Press,
purchased much of Morris's Kelmscott Press equipment
in an effort to replicate Kelmscott's success.
But they each evolved,
creating their own aesthetic and concepts.
Charles Robert Ashbee was a remarkable designer
in the movement, who worked with books,
metal, jewelry, and furniture.
His life was colorful.
His father, Henry Spencer Ashbee,
was a notorious writer of erotic fiction.
They were estranged soon after Ashbee founded Essex House,
due to Ashbee's sexual preference,
although he had a rocky marriage for 13 years
and they had four children.
However, throughout this turmoil,
Ashbee was exceedingly prolific.
Between 1898 and 1910, Essex House produced
over 70 titles and multiple typefaces.
Ashbee designed his books with less text and ornament.
Without Morris's talent for complex pattern and borders,
he focused instead on refined typography,
beautifully drawn typefaces,
and richly colored illustration.
Essex House Press's masterpiece was the Essex House Psalter.
The new text was written to emulate 16th century English.
The pages were laid out to suggest Medieval manuscript.
And to help complete the illusion of a Medieval book,
each psalm began with an illustrated initial cap.
Soon after Essex House Press closed,
Ashbee moved his family to Jerusalem until 1923,
and remained an active artist until his death in 1942.
Emery Walker and T. J. Cobden Sanderson
established the Doves Press in 1900.
Cobden Sanderson may have respected William Morris's ideals
for quality in handwork,
but disagreed with many of his ideas.
In 1917, he wrote the essay,
"I Do Not Believe in the Doctrine of William Morris."
The Doves Press books simplified the design
by using one typeface only,
but their creativity was expressed
in unique explorations with binding.
The books were produced with hand-stamped leather,
special vellum, gold foil, and rich endpapers.
The interiors of the books maintained a more rigid
and minimal approach.
Doves eliminated most of the borders and ornaments,
and focused on typography, proportions,
and initial capital letters.
The 1903 Doves Press Bible is a perfect example
of the combination of this simpler aesthetic,
tied with Arts and Crafts ideals.
By 1909, Cobden Sanderson and Walker were
in a bitter dispute involving the right to the Doves type
in the dissolution of their partnership.
To destroy the metal type, Cobden Sanderson threw all of it
into the Thames River.
In 2015, the type was rediscovered in the river,
and retrieved.
The Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro's son,
Lucien Pissarro, moved from Paris to England in 1890.
He intended to do lectures about Impressionism,
but met his wife Esther Levi Bensusan and stayed.
Inspired by Morris's Kelmscott Press,
Lucien and Esther established the Eragny Press.
As younger members of the Arts and Crafts movement,
Lucien and Esther looked to Medieval ideals,
but also integrated new concepts,
such as Art Nouveau and French fairy tales.
They integrated Expressionist illustration,
organic and fluid borders, and a typeface closer
to a modern serif font than Medieval blackletter.
By the time the Eragny closed in 1914,
they had published 32 books that had been designed,
illustrated, printed, and bound by Lucien and Esther.
In the United States,
Elbert Hubbard established Roycroft Press and Shops.
The Roycroft community
in East Aurora, New York produced books and magazines
based on Morris's Kelmscott Press books.
400 employees also produced home furnishings
and leather goods.
Morris's daughter May did not share the enthusiasm
for Elbert's goal to give ordinary people access
to beautiful hand-produced objects.
She declined to visit him,
calling him "that obnoxious imitator of my father."
Elbert died in 1915 aboard the Lusitania,
but Roycroft continued for another 20 years.
The story of the energy and vitality
of the small press movement expresses the turmoil
of the early 20th century.
These small presses all fought for higher quality
and the art of book making,
in a world that devalued well-made books and design.
But they battled on,
and their work not only expanded the Arts and Crafts ideals
of high quality, pride in workmanship,
and a rejection of the machine-made.
They also sparked a renewed appreciation
for typography and the printed word,
leading to developments by Eric Gill, Edward Johnston,
and Frederic Goudy.