Aa
Aa1
This bibliography describes three groups of books:
Aa2
Periodicals are in general included, but only for a few journals of special typographic importance have full entries been written: The Fleuron, The Woodcut, The Book-collector's Quarterly, and Signature new series. For some other periodicals only the first number has been fully described. Work is still in progress on this on-line version, and among the periodicals yet to be fully described are The Sackbut, Signature first series, Curwen Press newsletter, and La France Libre.
Aa3
Sheet music printed at Plaistow for the parent company, J Curwen & Sons, has all been excluded, but around a dozen books containing music have been included. They were in the Board Room Library at Plaistow, and evidently were considered quite distinct from the thousands of items of sheet music produced for J. Curwen & Sons.
Aa4
Histories of companies and similar institutions, a field where Curwen's reputation attracted much work, were included from the outset, and twenty or so appear in the list. Work done for companies as advertisement in furtherance of their trade has been excluded, at the suggestion of Howard Nixon, though sometimes the line has been difficult to draw. To include such items would have been unhelpful, confounding books produced for regular book-publishers with advertising material designed purely for purposes of commercial trade.
Aa5
A few advertisements for the Curwen Press itself have been identified, and I hope to add descriptions after the present revision.
Aa6
Originally in 1963 I called this a bibliographical handlist: a term suggested to me by my supervisor Howard Nixon. John Carter's definitions are helpful. There is no doubt that it is a handlist (Carter, 1961 p.110); indeed if the records were re-sorted by their Curwen Library shelfmarks a finding-list for that (now dispersed) collection would result. Based directly on the books on Curwen's Board Room shelves it need have been nothing more. Where I talk of 'the 1963 handlist' in what follows, I mean the original list accepted by the University of London, deposited and still available there (Phillips, 1963).
Aa7
Carter suggests a 'bibliography' is a 'systematic description of books according to subject … or of the products of a particular press', (Carter, 1961 p.34). Even while I was compiling the list it became clear that some items were missing, while some others were present but had 'local' casings or wrappers produced at the Press, as a simple protection for their own 'house' copy. These were fully described, faute de mieux, but clearly could not be considered 'ideal copies'. Fifty years have elapsed since, but not all have yet been traced in the publisher's casing as issued.
Calling the handlist a 'bibliography' might have led some users to expect a comprehensive listing of all known variants; the on-line list includes some, but certainly not all. Its focus is the technical description of each book, trying to detail the specific Curwen Press contribution. I am much more concerned that it should reach Howard Nixon's standards than what label it should be given.
Aa8
Substantial parts of the Introduction that follows formed part of my original introduction, and were checked through by Mr O. R. G. Williams, who by then was the Company Secretary. I obviously drew on material in Oliver Simon's autobiography (Simon, 1956). The most important later source is his brother Herbert's history of the Press (Simon, 1973). Shamefully, in each case the publisher provided only a 'name index', loth to commission a professional one.
Aa9
I have also had sight of the manuscript written by Tom Balston (Balston,1951), commissioned by Curwen Press for the Festival of Britain, and entrusted to Oliver Simon, but never published. Together with the actual books produced, which I have tried to describe, these must form the basis for any study of the Curwen Press.
Ab
Ab0
Mr John Curwen had been commissioned by the Sunday School Conference (1841) to find an easy method of teaching the people to sing. He was introduced to the Norwich Sol-fa Ladder, a system of notation devised by a Miss Glover of Norwich, and derived from the method of Guido d'Arrezzo, a Benedictine monk of the ninth century. Curwen (ordained 1844) improved and simplified Miss Glover's system, and in 1864 (Powers, 2008,Simon 1973 p.34) gave up his church ministry (pastorate) to devote himself to the work of popularising Sol-Fa throughout the country. He had great difficulty finding a printer able to meet the rapidly increasing demand for Tonic Sol-Fa printing, so he bought a small hand press, learnt how to print, and set up his printing-house in a vacant chapel (Simon 1973 p.231 ¶final) in North Street, Plaistow, Essex, in 1863.
That Curwen should have difficulty getting his music printed was not surprising. The music type designed by Breitkopf of Leipzig (1754) required 257 different 'sorts' of movable type to print the traditional 'staff notation' (Simon 1973 p.42) by letterpress. But Curwen realised he needed to print 'tonic sol-fa' in parallel with 'staff' and from 1866 a special group of elite compositors was trained, able to handle either system and also transpose music from one to the other (Simon 1973 p.88-9).
Later, when John Curwen's health deteriorated, he handed over the running of the firm, J. Curwen & Sons Ltd, to his sons, (John) Spencer Curwen and (Joseph) Spedding Curwen. The former, with academic musical training, devoted his life to the musical and publishing side of the business, while Spedding Curwen, from 1880, developed the Press as a printing works. Along with his brother, Spedding introduced the lithographic process in 1896. The mission field's demands for languages developed the compositors' skills; better binding and letterpress machines were installed, and for music printing the 'Leipzig method' (Simon 1973 p.88-89) combining engraving on pewter with lithography was adopted. Their father, the founder, the Rev. Mr. John Curwen, died in 1880.
Ab1
For a firm the size of Curwen's, to instal a Monotype caster, one of the earliest in the country in 1906, (Slinn, Carter & Southall 2014, p.46) was enterprising indeed. Although Curwen's naturally had stocks of founder's type in various faces, machine setting has obvious advantages over hand composition except for rather special jobs. Five years later Harold Curwen, Spedding's son, became a director. A national shortage of lead for munitions in 1915 (Simon, 1973, p.131) gave Harold at last the chance to sell off more than 200 'horror' typefaces and many other ornaments, above their 'book value'. Four faces were kept: Caslon Old Face; Monotype Old Style no.2; Modern Wide no.18; and Bold no.53 (needed for the large catalogues of the music publishing side).
Ab2
It would be a mistake to think that my bibliography celebrates the printing achievements of Oliver Simon alone. Harold Curwen, unlike many a son stepping into his father's shoes, proved to be a very positive and innovative manager of the Plaistow works (Barman, 1956). His career may be summarised:
Ab3
Harold followed his father Spedding in developing the Press. At Abbotsholme School he had become a good cabinet -worker and metal worker (Simon 1973 p.105), tried his hand at printing, and drawn inspiration from William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. 'It is clear that the revolution at The Curwen Press began at Abbotsholme' (Simon 1973, p.107) and even during the First World War Harold was re-planning the works and developing offset lithography.
Curwen Press had been known for some years as 'The Tonic Sol-fa Press'. Whether in tonic sol-fa or in 'staff notation' the printing of music is highly specialised. Producing special music sorts to print standard notation is complex, and letterpress often proves unsatisfactory. Augener & Co. set up as music printers in Britain from 1853 using lithography (Glaister 1960, p.270). For music printing this method proved cheaper than letterpress, and by 1900 had become the dominant method. Harold, with a constant stream of orders for music printing from Curwen's publishing office in the West End, made himself an expert on graphic reproduction both by letterpress and lithography (Curwen 1934). It was his superb eye for colour that would make possible the development of the pochoir process.
In letterpress work, after his major coup in 1915 of selling off 200+ 'horror' typefaces and printers' ornaments, Harold had kept four Monotype faces, and bought Kennerley by F.W.Goudy and Plantin (Messrs Shanks's version) for hand-setting (Simon 1973, p.131). To extend the range he next acquired Monotype Imprint. Along with Caslon it features in much early Curwen book-work. Kennerley Italic appears (see the 1928 Specimen book Kzc), but probably because it required hand setting was only used in a few small and rather specialised jobs. Plantin was chosen for the Coverdale Psalms (Iu), and in Gombrich's Story of Art in 1950 (ZHm), but for the 1925 Anatomy of Melancholy Hzf it was printed for Nonesuch at the Westminster Press.
So by 1920 Harold was running a re-planned printing-house, equipped with modern type-casting and binding machinery, poised to answer the demands of modern typography by either lithography or letterpress. Moreover, following his thorough work on costing systems, he remained for many years vice-president of a section of the London Master Printers Association.
Ab4
Demobilized, and 24 years of age, Oliver came to London, and happened to gaze at a Kelmscott Chaucer in the window of Sotheran's bookshop. He went in, and by the time he came out he knew where his future lay (Simon, 1956 p.8). After working at the Chiswick Press and studying a year at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts he approached Harold Curwen (whom he had met through Joseph Thorp) worked at Plaistow for a year as a 'student', and then continued partly on commission to see if adding book printing to Curwen's activities might prove possible. He started work in autumn 1921. One of the first printing orders he secured was Db from Daniel O'Connor.
Ab41
Curwen Press had until now done music printing and an increasing amount of commercial work, but entering the book printing field was something new. Curwen and Simon together made a great impact on the typographic world of the nineteen-twenties, establishing a reputation for their illustration work and their attention to design and colour. Statistically it is interesting to trace a time-line of their production in such categories as Privately printed/published; Company histories; and Limited editions. Work like this re-inforced by publicity gained through Oliver's Catalogues Raisonnés Gi, Hj, Kzc, Nc, suggests how Curwen's reputation in book printing was built up.
Ab5
By 1933 the character of the work done at Plaistow had changed considerably since its early days. No longer was Curwen Press devoted to music and tram-tickets. That year can be regarded in some ways as its high-water mark, and at this point, seventy years after its foundation, the firm divided in two.
J. Curwen & Sons Ltd continued the music publishing side, and their printing continued to be done at Plaistow. When in 1935 their Chairman Kenneth Curwen died, John Christopher Curwen became Manager, first under Selwyn Grant and then Maurice Jacobson as chairmen. In 1969 J. Curwen & Sons Ltd, music publishers, (incorporated 3/Aug/1897) was taken over by Crowell, Collier and Macmillan (Simon, 1973 p.70n.). They were eventually dissolved and removed from the Companies Register on 28/Feb/1989.
On 2/Mar/1933 the printing house became a separate company, registered as Curwen Press Limited. Oliver's brother Herbert Simon now came to Plaistow from the Kynoch Press in Birmingham. Initially the directors of the new company were Harold Curwen and the two Simon brothers.
Herbert Simon was responsible for further enlargement of the Plaistow works in 1937. Harold Curwen retired at the end of 1939 for reasons of health, and from 1940 Oliver was Chairman of the company. Harold Curwen died in 1949, (ZHt).
Later Oliver's health caused some concern, and in 1955 he was seriously ill. He suffered a relapse the next February, and died on Sunday 18/Mar/1956. His last board meeting was that of January the 24th that year. Oliver Simon's contribution to the excellence of British printing had received public recognition when in the New Year's Honours list of January 1953 he had been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.).
Ab51
It is worth high-lighting some special Curwen areas of excellence. From 1923 to 1926 a series of translated French Romances appeared, and it may be this affinity which during the Second World War drew so much French-language work to Plaistow. The printing of La France Libre, (Powers, 2008 p.59), brought with it many contacts with Free French writers. Stencilling and colour illustration will be mentioned separately, (Ac85). The extensive use of lithography in their printing of sheet music naturally led on to the encouraging of artists like Freedman and Ardizzone. Children's books also, enlivened by colour illustration, suited their expertise, as did the King Penguin series. Simon Family enthusiasms blossomed in the printing of books with a railway interest, such as Over the Points, Lq, and C. F. Dendy Marshall's History of the Southern Railway, Sg. It was no doubt family connections, through Simon's uncle Albert Rutherston, that involved Curwen in the production of the superlative 1930 Haggadah, Ml, edited by Cecil Roth, and the Jewish publishing for the Soncino Press.
Ab52
Examination of the books produced at Plaistow shows how in composition, lithography, letterpress work, and all details of production, the attitude of Harold Curwen and Oliver Simon made itself felt. Harold Curwen's love of colour and fine illustration is evident, together with Simon's feeling for a happy marriage of good paper with suitable type. Their ideal was to make their Press a workshop of art (see Simon 1956, p.87) and this applied no less to their encouragement of interested artists and illustrators than to their constant supervision, training, and one feels sure inspiration, of their craftsmen. The books here described can best demonstrate what measure of success they achieved.
Ab6
After my 1963 handlist was accepted by the University of London for their Diploma in Librarianship I tried in various ways to get it published. Timothy Simon also helped, suggesting several figures who might be interested to contribute an introductory essay, but nothing came of this. After an illness Timothy Simon became managing director of Gerald Duckworth in 1964 and moved to New York, but in May 1970 he tragicly died there of pneumonia.
Ab7
A document from Plaistow shows that in 1963, the centenary year of J. Curwen & Sons, an exhibition of 64 Curwen Press books was mounted at Bloomsbury, presumably in the music publishers' Head Office. A copy of Old Plaistow, by John Spencer Curwen (son of the founder) Plaistow, H. Parker (1892) was included, illustrated by Spedding Curwen and J. Kenneth Curwen. Seven books from the years after Oliver Simon's death in 1955 were also shown. The other books displayed are noted in the bibliography that follows.
Ab8
In 1977 Pat Gilmour curated the Artists at Curwen exhibition at the Tate Gallery, Gilmour (1977). It was some time after this that the presses at Plaistow came to a stop, and the Library was gradually sold and dispersed.
Ac
Ac1
Around the time that Oliver joined the Curwen Press the Monotype Corporation was planning a programme of type-production to restore to use the best faces from earlier centuries of printing. Directing this expansion was Stanley Morison, whom Oliver Simon had already met through the D.I.A. in West End publishing. Garamond was the first of this programme, marketed in 1923, and taken up by Curwen Press in its first year. Being a rather mannered face, it was somewhat restricted in its usefulness, and less successful than the next design, Baskerville. This proved more versatile, and became one of the most used faces at Plaistow.
Ac2
Simon was not content to simply follow where Monotype led the way. The Curwen Press itself introduced to English printing several continental designs. Rudolf Koch's Kursiv was one of the first, in 1926 (Il), followed by its Roman in the next year (Ji). Both are still seen today, mostly in display work. Another was Lutetia, designed by J. van Krimpen, and obtained in 1928. It was used for several distinguished productions, including Emin, the Governor of Equatoria (Kf) — a limited edition for A. J. A. Symons — and the great Legion Book (Ln) produced in 1929. In 1930 Lutetia was made available also to users of Monotype.
Ac3
By far the most important type-face introduced by Curwen's was Walbaum. Simon obtained it from the Berlin foundry of H. Berthold, which possessed the original punches and matrices. Set by hand, this type was used for seventeen books — (Id, In, Jo, Jr, Jzf11, Jzf16, Jzf18, Jzf23, Jzf27, Jzf29, Jzf30, Jzf32, Kg, Lm, Lv, Mx, Nc) — all of them limited editions and notable productions. (In the technical descriptions the type-size has been expressed in points, though originally measured in didots.) Monotype then made possible its use in an extended range of less expensive work. by adding it to their range in 1933, by which time Curwen's had already been using it for eight years. The hand-set books are described as such in the records.
Ac4
Monotype meantime had brought out their Bembo, in 1929. This was welcomed with enthusiasm by Simon. It and Baskerville became the most frequently used book-faces at Plaistow. It is interesting to trace, with the help of the indexes, the gradual shift from use of Imprint and Caslon, in the early days, to that of Bembo and Baskerville, followed later by Ehrhardt — the only other Monotype face that appears in more than twenty productions. This actually represents a high proportion of the output, as it only became available from 1945.
Of other Monotype faces, Times New Roman, brought out in 1931, did not find its way into Curwen's book production till 1937, and seems to have been used mostly for strictly utilitarian jobs, such as social surveys by Mass-Observation. Plantin, available from 1913, has been mentioned earlier. Pastonchi was used in 1929 (Lx), set by Monotype for the Press to print. Simon describes it as 'contemporary, but not particularly legible.' Bodoni was used for book-work once only (Hf), and that for a book written by G. B. Bodoni himself.
Ac5
Apart from the Pastonchi just mentioned, several other types were set outside Plaistow for Curwen to print. Jenson (by Ludlow) appears in two books of1930 (Ma, My). The latter was the first use of Jenson in a French publication. Each was printed at Plaistow from slugs supplied by the Ludlow company. Canon Hebreeuws (a Hebrew face) was set by its owners, Enschedé of Haarlem, for the outstanding Haggadah (Ml) of 1930. Victor Scholderer's New Hellenic (a Greek face) appears in the footnotes of Urne Buriall, (On), 1932. These two were the only non-Roman faces used at Plaistow during this period. For two anthologies of contemporary print, On Type Faces (Fv) (1923) and Printing of To-day (Kv,1928) contributions of set type or stereotype plates were made by other presses, some overseas. Indeed for the latter two complete sections were printed on the continent of Europe, by Poeschel und Trepte of Leipzig and Method Kalab of Prague.
Two cases occur of type borrowed from other houses or bought specially for a single job. On Type Faces, (Fv), just mentioned, contains an introduction set in Riccardi, lent to Curwen by the Medici Society. Genesis (Gn) was set in Neuland type, a heavy face to complement the woodcut illustrations of Paul Nash. In each case the type was hand-set at Plaistow.
Ac6
Mention must be made here of paper, in view of Oliver Simon's lively interest, but it is impossible to give a detailed account as much stock used at Plaistow (like most modern paper) was not watermarked. With such paper one can only note the change from laid to wove paper which became quite pronounced after the Second World War. The watermarked paper reveals that Simon was just as energetic in his search for good paper as for good type. We find him using paper from Italy, France, Germany, Holland, Czechoslovakia and even the U.S.A.
Ac61
For hand-made paper Curwen's usual British suppliers seem to have been J. Barcham Green, owners of F.J.Head & Co., and it is almost certain that a large portion of the unmarked wove used for certain productions (Ariel Poems etc.) comes from them also. From the very beginning of the period covered Grosvenor Chater are among his suppliers with their Abbey Mills laid, Basingwerk Parchment wove, and later Glastonbury laid. Spicers and Dickinsons also make their appearance, as might be expected. It is quite clear that Herbert Simon, who came to the Press in 1933, shared Oliver's enthusiasm for paper, despite teasing Oliver for his love of 'porridge paper' (Simon, 1973 p.203 v.10).
In the case of 'loaded' paper no watermarks appear, so I have not usually been able to identify the supplier. Another of Oliver Simon's ambitions is displayed by a few books printed on 'japon paper'.
Ac7
Many limited editions were produced on hand-made paper, or even on vellum. As hand-made paper presents a harder and rougher surface to the type than ordinary machine-made stock, great care is needed for the printer to obtain first-class results. At Plaistow much attention was given to such factors as the ink consistency and the dampness of the paper. (See Curwen, 1934 p.7). The finest typeface in the world cannot secure good results without good ink, and it is clear from the record (Simon, 1973 p.124) that in this respect also Curwen were demanding the highest standards.
Ac8
Mention has been made of the care given to illustration work at Plaistow. No special comment is needed on the conventional letterpress methods of line block and halftone. I did observe that at Plaistow either type of plate was mounted on type-metal blocks for machining, thus avoiding any 'spring' or 'give' from compression of underlying wood.
Ac81
By convention the term Woodcut is reserved for an illustration taken from a type-high block of softwood on which the artist has cut his or her design, whereas a Wood Engraving is cut on the end-grain of a hardwood block, usually of boxwood (see Glaister, 1960 p.442), and (Curwen, 1934 pp.1-17). Linocuts are produced by a similar technique on dark smooth linoleum (Curwen, 1934 pp.14-17), a system many printers cannot be bothered with. Harold Curwen however devised a lithographic method for printing wallpapers from Edward Bawden's linocut designs (Balston, 1951 p,27). At Plaistow some limited editions illustrated with woodcuts were printed straight from the wood, not from a metal block made by process engraving. As with autolithographs, the aim was to avoid processes which come between the artist and the final product.
Certain other methods require some explaining:
Ac82
A process used at Plaistow in some particularly effective work was lithography, first introduced to the Press in 1896, when the printing was done direct from the stone (Curwen, 1934 pp.40-63). In 1913 the off-set method was installed, and thereafter used routinely in their music printing. Curwen's expertise with litho meant that they used it for line drawings Izh where many printers would have turned to process engraving. The most notable litho work done at Plaistow is probably the colour illustration by Barnett Freedman and Edward Ardizzone in the 1930s and '40s. In special cases they and other artists drew their designs direct on the 'stone', thus producing what is called an autolithograph. With these, as with woodcuts printed direct from the wood, no photographic or mechanical process intervenes between the artist and the printed product, thus preserving the artist's authority.
Ac83
In various other books such processes as photogravure (Curwen, 1934 pp.119-122), printing from metal engravings, etc. occur. Wherever specialist printers of such illustrations have been traced, they have been mentioned in the description and in the Index. Photogravure is especially used where a long print run is required, postage stamps being a well-known instance.
Ac84
Collotype illustrations occur in many of the books described. This process (Curwen, 1934 pp.124-127) was never performed at Plaistow, but always put out to collotype printers, who are very few and very specialised. Where the name of such a printer is shown in the imprint, it has been noted and indexed, but in a large number of cases no acknowledgement appears. O. R. G. Williams said 'It is safe to assume that most of these were printed at the Chiswick Press, Charles Whittingham and Griggs, where Oliver Simon had worked for three months during his student days'.
Ac85
Stencilling, in which colour was applied by hand with a brush or sponge through stencils cut from Bristol Board (or later cellophane sheets) onto an outline, or key, already printed by a conventional method, was in Oliver's view (Simon (1956) p.85) not a printing process, but at Plaistow was always used in conjunction with (say) letterpress. In most cases the key was printed by letterpress, litho or collotype, but a few instances occur where the design has permitted stencilled colour to be used with no key at all. Harold does include stencilling in his book on graphic printing processes (Curwen, 1934 pp.35-39). It may be that Oliver excluded stencilling from his Catalogues raisonnés as being a hand process, therefore subject to variations due to the operative.
Harold Curwen developed stencilling from the French pochoir technique, and it became a speciality at Plaistow. By good fortune we have Harold's description and also accounts both from Oliver (Simon,1956 pp.85-89) and Herbert (Simon, 1973 pp.211-217). This latter quotes a first-hand account by Gertrude Temkin, a supervisor, and cutter of stencils. She and Harold shared a very true eye for colour. The colour applied in stencilling was generally watercolour, but Desmond Flower, a newly arrived partner at Cassells (later Chairman), encouraged further experimentation, and Elsie and the Child, (Lj), contains some illustrations where gouache colour has been applied over a lithographic basis.
Stencilling in colour was used to great effect in nine limited editions (listed in Simon, 1956 p.86 note), Its success was such that other clients including the Nonesuch Press came to Plaistow. and according to Oliver (Simon, 1956 p.87 ¶2) illustrations were stencilled for 11 books where the text was printed elsewhere by letterpress (Dreyfus, 1981), until the Slump in 1933 forced that department of the Press to close. Descriptions of these are currently being added to the bibliography.
Ac9
According to Oliver Simon, Curwen's only bound (i.e. sewed and put into casings) small or limited editions (Simon 1956, p.110 n.1). Generally the flat printed sheets were handed over to a 'trade binder' who cased the book. Many printing-houses are equipped for collation, folding, and sewing, and so can easily handle production of pamphlets and paperback editions (Curwen 1934 pp.129-134). Paperbacks may often have had their paper 'wrappers' attached at Plaistow, and the printing of these wrappers, like the lithographing of cloth covers for casings, forms part of the printer's contribution to the finished book.
Where a binding in the strict sense was required (i.e. where the book was to be sewn on tapes or cords, then attached to boards which will be covered with leather, vellum, cloth, or paper) the sheets would be sent to a craft bookbinder. A binding, in this strict sense, is unavoidably a hand-made piece of work. Expense restricts this more durable system to private work and limited editions. McLeish, and Wood, and Sangorski & Sutcliffe were among the hand binders who bound Curwen books. Wherever a binder's mark has been found on a leather binding, his name has been noted in the entry and the index, but some bindings were not 'signed' in this way.
Ac90
Some of the books examined at the Curwen Press Library lacked the correct publisher's casing, having probably been cased at the Press after the rest of the sheets had been sent off to a trade binder or a client. A few other books possess what may be the correct publisher's casing, but without any title blocked on the outside. Both types of fault have been noted, and wherever possible a published copy has been traced for comparison.
Ad
Ad0
Any record may comprise:
Ad1
The publication year of a book was normally taken direct from the index of the Curwen Library, in most cases confirmed by the title-page or its verso. Where the date could only be established from other sources, such as the B.M. (now British Library) Catalogue, a note follows after the Technical description. As the works notes, which contained details of print runs, production dates and clients, had mostly been destroyed before 1963, possibly by flood, it was impossible to tell the order in which one job followed another through the press. Revision of the handlist since 2006 has made it possible to add to many items the date they were received at the Legal Deposit Office (see note 9 below). Thus the order of publishing from 1919 to 1955 is becoming visible for the first time, but at present only a fraction of the entries have this additional datum.
The Bibliography number is a combination of upper and lower-case letters and digits:
An alphabetic notation has been chosen, to make references briefer and allow insertion of further items/years. Capital letters (not more than two) show the year of publication (e.g. B=1919, ZM=1955).
Within any year a (meaningless) order is formed by adding lower-case letters. Thus H stands for 1925, and Hzc is the 27th item listed in that year. The lower-case sequence can run from a to y, and carries on to za and further if more than twenty-five items need describing.
Finally 1 or 2 further characters may appear: Variants are shown by an added letter. For example Fb is the 'ordinary edition' of one 1923 book, Fba describes the 'paper-back' version and Fbb is the 'fine-paper edition'.
Parts of a multi-volume set are distinguished by adding digits. Hx3 in 1925 is the third volume of a 3-volume set whose first is Hx1; so also for periodicals: e.g. Og1 is issue no.1 of a periodical starting in 1932. Variant issues are again distinguished by letters: thus Me4a is a variant of issue no.4 of a quarterly starting in 1930. If a periodical uses volume numbering and issue numbering, both numbers form part of the Reference, with ' / ' between them. (To avoid confusion any roman numerals are converted into arabic; for example see Kl 6/35). Periodicals are thus entered under the year in which each title was launched, following the Curwen Library index I examined at Plaistow.
References given in the 1963 handlist accepted by the University of London have been kept, except for a handful which had been illogicly formed. A note indicates any change of number.
Ad2
of copies examined or located:
During the process of revision B.L. shelfmarks have been added where possible; also those of copies in Aberystwyth or other libraries visited. Shelfmarks of the Curwen Press library, dispersed in sales from 1977 and through the 1980s, are still shown.
Ad3
Many entries have further parts: the transcripts, the collation and paging, the technical description, and any other notes. Transcripts of title-pages are given (or of mastheads or front covers in lieu) and location of the Printer's Imprint.
All books described were printed at Plaistow unless otherwise stated. The exceptions are chiefly books stencilled at Plaistow with text printed elsewhere.
In transcripts I try to follow the conventions of 'quasi-facsimile', (Gaskell, 1972 p.322 onwards), but see below Ad4. Capitals and small capitals are not distinguished, nor are old style and new style numerals.
Half-titles, Dedications, Frontispieces, etc. were not recorded in the 1963 handlist, but in some cases they have now been added; the presence and whereabouts of Colophon, Limitation notice, Series information, Errata, etc. are noted. All these are only transcribed if they contribute important information.
Ad4
Collation: given in the customary notation, (see notes below) unsigned gatherings being enclosed by brackets [ ].
After the collation come brief indications of inserted leaves, abnormal endleaves, erratum slips, etc. Inserts have not usually been described in the collation formula because heavily illustrated works (frequent in Curwen's output) would demand tediously complex notation
Endleaves are occasionally a 4-leaf section sewn as part of the book but entirely blank. In a few cases the usual endleaf pair of leaves, one as a pastedown, is followed by another pair of leaves tipped in between it and the outermost gathering. This I have referred to as 'double endleaves' —, but it is quite distinct from the method described by Cockerell (Cockerell, 1948 p.82).
Ad5
never includes inserts unless this is stated. A number in [ ] at beginning or end of the paging gives a total for blank un-numbered pages. Thus [+3] indicates that 3 blank un-numbered pages follow after the last numbered page. This seemed preferable rather than imputing a number to pages which were never meant to be numbered. If a final unnumbered page bears any printing, the inferred number is noted in square brackets (e.g. Hzg). Where the signing of the sections made it appropriate π or χ have been used to indicate additional leaves, (Gaskell, 1972 p.330). In the paging statement I must ask the reader to forgive some inconsistency: in general I prefer the briefest expression (e.g. 213-5 means 213-215); this should not admit any doubt or ambiguity; but in a few cases I have been persuaded to adopt the longer form, more comfortable for any who silently pronounce the words to themselves while reading.
Ad6
For a handful of books I have judged it useful to provide some listing of contents, not always replicating a Contents page — see ZCh,Kza,Kzf — and not always using 'quasi-facsimile'. This does not claim the authority of a transcript : it merely indicates what will be found in the book, where matters of interest may not be clear from the title-page.
A traditional 'bibliography' might include transcripts, collation and paging, but as my interest stemmed from a practical involvement in printing, and the Curwen Press products were so notable for their use of paper, type and illustration, I felt it imperative to include these aspects, and have provided for each record a Technical Description thus:
Ad8
If traditional named formats appeared in the Curwen Library index they appear here before a colon; Paper: the actual size as measured in inches is given; trimming, gilding, colouring etc. of edges; type of paper, presence of watermarks;
Ad9
Identity of typeface; size used in text (in points or didots); leading where this could be determined; ligatures; dropped capitals;
Ad10
method; number; use of colour;
Ad11
Wrappers, casing, or binding: printing or lettering on them is transcribed; presence of dust-jacket, slip-case, etc. if seen; in recent revising I have preferred such expressions as "back cover", "inside front cover", etc. (which risk no ambiguity) to phrases like "upper" or "lower" wrapper or cover, which I feel have become esoteric.
Ad12
During revision many notes have been added, explicating pseudonyms or the context of a publication; links have been made to many Wikipedia biographical entries along with on-line access to the O.D.N.B. and the National Portrait Gallery; typefaces have been annotated with date of design and date of their entry into the Monotype range.
Ad13
refers to the record in this bibliography, including the date when latest revision took place. Wherever dates appear, except in a transcript, the format adopted is dd/Mmm/yyyy, with no leading zeroes, e.g. 7/Apr/1977.
Ad14
Date of legal deposit at the B.L. from their copy of the book. Howard Nixon pointed out that this date was the only secure basis remaining to establish the order in which items were printed. I believe that the Copyright Acts 1709/1911 ordered that one copy of "the best paper edition" should be supplied to the King's Library. Observance of this law has been very patchy. It is noticeable that several books associated with Joseph Thorp were never deposited at all. By contrast Curwen have in several instances deposited editions printed on vellum — supererogation indeed!
Ad20
On the right column of the Front Page words in colour indicate a 'live' link taking you to specific sections of the bibliography, and similarly in other tabulations. From the Front Page you can browse the bibliography with different types of search:
By year: This choice displays a chronological sequence, putting all the records in order. Currently the order is approximate, based on the Reference numbers. We hope to produce a more precise order as revision proceeds.
By typeface: You can search for typefaces by name; the initial link for each face also displays brief historical notes and affords statistical comparisons between the various faces employed.
By name: You can search by Personal or Corporate names; links have also been provided to Wikipedia, O.D.N.B. and N.P.G. entries about many authors and artists; most names have descriptors to identify the role played, such as Author, Artist, Publisher, Contributor, Binder, etc.
Specific terms: Below these three choices a search box appears. By entering terms here and defining which fields are to be searched you can trawl the entire database and retrieve related entries. For example, try 'stencilled', 'company history', 'translation from French', and explore the controlled subject vocabulary.
Return to 'front page': After reading specific records you can always return directly to the 'front page' by following the link from the heading at the very top of the web page.
Ad30
I have now collated my records more thoroughly against the Catalogues Raisonnés produced by Oliver Simon. While not quoting him word for word, I have noted many useful references.
Periodicals:My intention is to give full descriptions of periodicals of typographic importance printed by Curwen — The Fleuron, The Woodcut Annual, The Book-collector's Quarterly, Signature — but for other titles only to describe in full the first issue, with notes about significant later developments. On these 'non-typographic' titles much work remains to be done.
See also Aa5 and Aa6 for other unfinished work.
Statistical information: This list covers 37 years, when many changes in printing took place. Typefaces and Paper have been mentioned already. In 1963 the external examiner raised critical eyebrows at my attempt to index types of paper, but in fact this affords an opportunity to display these important changes by graphic means, using pie-charts, histograms, time-lines, etc. We hope in due course to develop this further.
The Ariel Poems series:This important series, published by Faber & Gwyer around the time when T. S. Eliot joined the firm and it changed its name to Faber & Faber, will appear at Jzf1 — Jzf38a, but I need to revise the entries further. This is a high priority along with the stencilled illustrations mentioned next.
Hand-coloured stencilled illustrations:When the handlist was compiled full descriptions were included of books printed by Curwen and illustrated by this method, but Pat Gilmour, who curated the 1977 exhibition at the Tate Gallery, (Gilmour.1977) and the late Douglas Ball of C.L.W. each felt the stencil method was so important (and difficult to trace) that all books illustrated by Harold Curwen's method, wherever printed, should be included. Accordingly I am adding records for these. Lzc is one example.
Ad4
As Gaskell's book was not published until eight years after my handlist was accepted, the conventions of "quasi-facsimile" followed here, recommended by Howard Nixon, unavoidably diverge slightly from those described by Gaskell Gaskell (1972) pp.328–333. Please take note that:
Ad50
In every description a link is provided at the right foot, enabling you to e-mail any query or corrections direct to me. Thank you for your help!
Ae
Ae0
I first visited the Curwen Press in Plaistow on Wednesday 8th October 1952 (fixed in my memory by the Harrow and Wealdstone railway disaster) as a member of the Typographical Society at Whitgift School in South Croydon, led by our Art master, Frank H. Potter. Later, at the School of Librarianship at U.C.L., my reading Oliver Simon's autobiography Printer and Playground on a visit to Cambridge moved me to choose the Curwen Press's book output as the subject for my bibliography project.
This was approved by U.C.L. and by Timothy Simon, Oliver's son, and so, after gaining part I of my Diploma in 1961, I started to visit the Press weekly while working for the British Council and later for Croydon Public Libraries.
On each visit I spent the day in the Board Room 'cataloguing' their library, and compiled the results to form the handlist which in December 1963 was accepted for part II of my Diploma. During this work I had the very good fortune to be supervised by Howard M Nixon of the British Museum Library, who unstintingly advised me on the technical problems.
Ae1
The basis of the handlist was the Library of the Curwen Press itself, in the Board Room at Plaistow, East Ham, London E.13, supposedly a complete record of their book output, which in its card index included various further data.
In 1963 when it was accepted, the handlist held something over 650 records, as I recall.
Copies of my 1963 handlist are still available at the University of London Research Library, the Public Library at New Ham, and the library of the former College of Librarianship Wales, now part of the University of Aberystwyth. (In 1965 the county boroughs of East Ham and West Ham became the new London borough of Newham.)
Ae2
While I was compiling my handlist Herbert Simon was Chairman of the Curwen Press, but already one felt that changes were impending. Basil Harley and his father had joined the Board in 1964, and in 1970 Herbert retired. His valuable and accurate history (Simon, 1973) was published in 1973. He died in 1975.
In 1958 Timothy Simon and his cousin Robert Simon had set up the Curwen Studio, (Harley, 1970 p.35), one of the first ateliers for artists' lithography in Great Britain, with Stanley Jones as its artist-manager (Gilmour, 1977), and in the same year Curwen Prints Ltd started, producing autolithographs.
While I was employed at Nottingham University my rare books colleague, Michael Brook, helpfully alerted me to Curwen items he spotted in booksellers' catalogues, and other professionals, like Alan Guest, also told me of their finds. During this period from 1963–99, I tried repeatedly to find some way of publishing the handlist, but without success. I was aware of some gaps in the Curwen Library, but could not obtain study leave to trace and examine these books elsewhere, and add them to my records.
Ae3
In 1975 Curwen Studio presented to the Tate Gallery an archive of 750 artists' lithographs (Gilmour, 1977) and on this basis the 1977 'Artists at Curwen' exhibition at the Tate Gallery was mounted — a watershed event, curated by Pat Gilmour. She had my handlist by her at the Tate in the later stages of her preparations, and afterwards wrote me with some comments on specific books.
Ae5
Soon after this the presses at Plaistow came to a stop, and the Curwen Library was dispersed in sales, starting in early 1977 and continuing through the 1980s. Douglas Ball, Librarian of the College of Librarianship Wales, was one of those who saw the Tate Gallery exhibition. He was able to buy a number of volumes for their research collections. These included many that had very likely belonged to Herbert Simon or to the firm's West End office in London where Timothy Simon had worked.
Hearing of my handlist, Douglas copied it with permission, and generously sent me entries for items not already described there. His important input detailed variant copies of items already described, and he also called my attention to various books I had not yet seen. To him the copyright of those entries is credited in this on-line bibliography, and the Thomas Parry Library shelfmark has been included; e.g. Gzb, Mzf, Qm, ZAn, ZAo, ZDba, ZHs. Douglas Ball retired from the College of Librarianship in September 1980, and died 18th July 1985. In 1989 C.L.W. became part of the University of Aberystwyth.
In 1983, twenty years after I finished work in the Board Room at Plaistow, (Alan Powers, 2008) the Curwen Press (the printing company) went into liquidation, and was formally dissolved on 28th February 1989.
After changes of ownership the Curwen Studio survives today as a separate entity, under Herbert Simon's grand-daughter, Jenny Roland.
Ae6
After retirement (May 1999), frustrated that the handlist was still unpublished, I at last found time for thorough revision. My elder son Matthew had by then become a librarian. As I had learnt the usefulness and versatility of computers while developing an interloans package, I was keen to respond when he suggested publishing the bibliography on the internet.
The Tate's 1977 exhibition, curated by Pat Gilmour, had revived public interest in the Curwen Press. Various published works reflect this (Gilmour 1977), (Powers 2008), (Twemlow 2009),
Revising the Ariel Poems series led me to Dr Flower's work on E. McKnight Kauffer (Flower 1956) which usefully focusses on a major contributing artist. I intend to make entries for all the books which he lists, though several are unconnected with Curwen.
Converting the database to a computer file has brought many benefits: among them links to WorldCat, the ODNB, and the NPG. I am adding B.L. shelfmarks wherever possible, Indexing of the records has therefore been greatly improved, and following up such links has enabled me to add many notes about specific people, typefaces, and so forth.
Ae7
Taking up the suggestions of Pat Gilmour and Douglas Ball that all the works which had hand-coloured illustrations done by Harold Curwen's stencil process should be included, even where the text was printed outside Plaistow, I am currently adding descriptions of these books. Many were associated with the Nonesuch Press. Herbert Simon's history of the Curwen Press gives a sound basis for this, and John Dreyfus's weighty bibliography has been invaluable (Dreyfus, 1981).
Also I have benefitted from reports by many friends where they have encountered books I have not described. In most cases these are books which were missing from the Curwen Library, either through war damage or the printing of later impressions.
We also hope to generate graphic reports, and show the fashion changes in type-face, illustration, and paper over the years 1919 – 1955. These should be made available in the fairly near future.
It is idle to hope that the bibliography will ever be complete, but I can at least welcome the feedback of those who try to use it, and thank them for their help.
Ae8
First and foremost among my debts is what I owe to the guidance and supervision of Howard Nixon, Ronald Staveley, Timothy Simon, Herbert Simon, and O. R. G. Williams. I also wish to acknowledge the practical help and encouragement of Michael Brook, Croydon Public Libraries, Joan Gibbs, Peter Hoare, Stephen Massil, Ian Phillips (my late brother), Ian Rogerson, Andrew Worth, and other friends; Barbara Phillips for help with genealogy; Hilary Phillips for her sharp-eyed proof-reading; also help from the Wilson Library (University of North Carolina), Stephen Smith and colleagues (University of Aberystwyth), Stephen Massil (formerly in the University of London Library), Paul W. Nash (Printing Historical Society) and the constantly helpful staff of the British Library.
Ae9
My elder son, Matthew (currently head of Digital and Bibliographic Services, Durham University Library) has tirelessly devised the 'front end' for the bibliography, and made many editorial comments to improve it.
Monday 18th October 2021 — Robin Phillips
Af
Auden, Wystan Hugh, 1950. Collected shorter poems, 1930-1944. London: Faber & Faber.
(Poem: In memory of Ernst Toller appears on pp.136-7)
See Izh.
Balston, Thomas, 1951. The Curwen Press 1907-1940 : an epoch in its history. Wilson Library, University of North Carolina: Z232.C9 B3 1951.
(Unpublished manuscript. Commissioned by the Curwen Press for the Festival of Britain (1951); Balston had been a partner at Duckworth (publishers) and a historian of paper-making; the period covers the entire career of Harold Curwen.)
See Ms.
Barman, Christian, 1956. Harold Curwen. Penrose Annual (ISSN 0079-0710), 50 (inc. illus.), pp.31-34.
(Barman became Publicity Officer for London Transport in 1935. )
Bush, Susan Hilles, 1996. William Inglis Morse, A book collector extraordinaire. In: Eric L. Swanick, ed. The book disease: Atlantic provinces book collectors. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Dalhousie University School of Library and Information Studies. (Occasional papers series ; 58). ISBN 0770397689. Ch. 3, pp.33-70.
(Tells of W. I. Morse, book-collector, benefactor of Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. see Na)
Carter, John, 1961. A B C for book collectors. 3rd ed. rev. London: Rupert Hart-Davis.
(Excellent plain English guide to the technical terms of the book world. Try Bibliography (p.34) and Handlist (p.110) for example.)
Carter, John & and Graham Pollard, 1934. An Enquiry into the nature of certain nineteenth-century pamphlets. London: Constable & Co.
(Exposed the 'pre-first' forgeries of T. J. Wise.)
See Izg.
Catalogue raisonné of books printed at the Curwen Press 1920-1923. London: Medici Society, 1924.
(Introduction by Holbrook Jackson. This Catalogue and others following are reprinted in Simon 1973 pp.235-253.)
See Gi.
Cockerell, Douglas, 1948. Bookbinding, and the care of books. 4th ed. London: Pitman.
Curwen, Harold, 1934. Processes of graphic reproduction in printing. London: Faber and Faber.
(Descriptions of all graphic reproduction methods, including stencilling, in a clear logical order.)
See Qf.
Curwen, Harold, 1947. Processes of graphic reproduction in printing. New ed. London: Faber and Faber.
(Descriptions of all graphic reproduction methods, including stencilling, in a clear logical order. )
See ZEzc.
Curwen, Harold, 1948. Printing. Harmondsworth: Penguin. (Puffin Picture book, no. 70).
See ZFl.
Drabble, Margaret, ed., 2000. (OCEL) Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edn. Oxford: Oxford U. P.. ISBN 0198662440.
Dreyfus, John, Geoffrey Keynes, David McKitterick and Simon Rendall, 1981. A history of the Nonesuch Press, with an Introduction by G. Keynes, & a Descriptive catalogue by D. McKitterick, S. Rendall & J. Dreyfus. London: Nonesuch Press. ISBN 0370303970.
(Introduction by G Keynes; descriptive catalogue David McKitterick, Simon Rendall, John Dreyfus;
Errata, see: Izh, Lzg1; N.B. Dreyfus and I follow differing conventions; he omits collations; in transcripts (e.g. title-pages) I always try to show line-ends, capitalisating and illustration)
See Lzg1.
Flower, Desmond, 1956. The book illustrations of E. McKnight Kauffer. The Penrose annual (ISSN 0079-0710), 50, pp.35-40.
(handlist of his illustrations; 4 full-page illustrations inserted after p.36; analysis of each illustration discussed.)
Gaskell, Philip, 1972. A new introduction to bibliography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0198181507.
(Pp.328-334 explain the "formula" of the "quasi-facsimile" system commonly used in bibliography nowadays.)
Gilmour, Pat, 1976. [Private letter to Robin Phillips dated 19/Dec/1976].
Gilmour, Pat, 1977. Artists at Curwen: a celebration of the gift of artists' prints from the Curwen Studio. London: Tate Gallery. ISBN 0905005805.
(glossary, pp.161-4; index, pp.165-7; for the exhibition 23 February 1977 — 11 April 1977 at Tate Gallery;
Notes in our Names Index supplement the index and help pinpoint her chapters about the more important artists.)
See Ni.
Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall, 1960. Glossary of the Book. London: George Allen and Unwin.
(Explaining technical terms, e.g.: Japanese vellum, Music engraving, etc.)
Grossman, Carol Porter, 2017. History of the Limited Editions Club. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press.
(Not yet examined)
Harley, Basil, 1970. The Curwen Press: a short history. London: Curwen Press.
(Basil Harley was the last Chairman of the Curwen Press.)
Harley, Basil, 1973. Unicornucopia: a study of the natural history of the amazing unicorns living at the Curwen Press. Plaistow: Curwen Press.
(Distributed to clients of the Curwen Press;
Not yet examined)
Hart, Horace, 1952. Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford. 36th edn. London: O.U.P..
(The edition I had when I first visited Curwen.)
Hepburn, James, editor, 1981. Arnold Bennett: the critical heritage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (The Critical Heritage Series). .
(Details the publishing history of Bennett's writings.)
See Lj.
Jackson, Holbrook, 1935. A cross-section of English printing: the Curwen Press, 1918-1934. London: Curwen Press.
(see Simon (1973) p.212 correcting Jackson's statement re staffing of Stencil Department.)
See Re.
, , 1948. Writing and illuminating and lettering. London: Pitman. (Arts and Crafts series).
(Discussion of letterforms, inc. cursive)
Lyttelton, George and Rupert Hart-Davis, 1979. Lyttelton Hart-Davis letters, vols 1-5, ed. and Intro by Rupert Hart-Davis. London: John Murray.
(Commentary on art and society of the period, and relations with Ruth Simon and family.)
McClean, Ruari, 1982. Collecting books for their design — the Curwen Press. Antiquarian book monthly review (ISSN 0306-7475), IX (8) Issue 100, pp.306-308.
McMinn, Stuart, 2016. The Curwen Press : printing blocks – from the archives. 2016. Saltdean: Four Ems Graphic Art.
(Numbered reproductions of blocks, mostly b+w)
Moran, James, 1971. Stanley Morison, his typographic achievement. London: Lund Humphries. ISBN 9780853313005.
(Thorough account, correcting the 'errata' derived from Morison's own words )
Mosley, James, 2015. Garamond or Garamont?. Printing Historical Society: Journal of the Printing Historical Society (ISSN 0070-5321), N.S. 23, pp.77-104.
(Argues that 'Garamont' was the spelling used by the punch-cutter himself.)
Moxon, Joseph, ed. by Herbert Davis & Harry Carter, 1962. Mechanick exercises on the whole art of printing (1683-4). 2nd. London: Oxford U.P..
(p.278 ¶9. Of wetting paper)
Phillips, Robin, 1963. Oliver Simon at the Curwen Press : a bibliographical handlist of their book production from 1919 to 1955. 1963. London: University College, London.
(unpublished thesis, submitted in part requirement for the Diploma in Librarianship
University College London, Library Store shelfmark:UCLTHESES)
Powers, Alan, 2008. Art and print: the Curwen story. London: Tate. ISBN 9781854377210.
(The earlier parts of this book concentrate on the Curwen Press, the later parts on the Curwen Studio.)
Rogerson, Ian, 1993. Albert Rutherston: a catalogue of the illustrated books, periodicals, pamphlets, Christmas cards, pantomimes, diaries and almanacks, pattern papers, ornaments and autographed letters in the collections of the Manchester Metropolitan University Library together with an introduction. 2nd ed. Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University Library. ISBN 0901276448.
(Albert Rutherston, originally Rothenstein, was uncle to Oliver Simon, and until 1930 his artwork regularly featured in Curwen products.)
Saudé, Jean, 1925. Traité d'enluminure d'art au pochoir. Paris: Gallimard.
(Source of Harold Curwen's efforts in stencilling)
Simon, Herbert, 1973. Song and words: a history of the Curwen Press. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0046550119.
(Oliver's younger brother recounts the history of the Press from John Curwen's call to the division in 1933 of the two companies.
Corrigendum: p.217, illus. for Pilgrim's progress total 8 altogether.
Appendix B, pp.235-253, reprints the Catalogues Raisonnés for 1922-1932.)
Simon, Oliver, 1945. Introduction to typography. London: Faber and Faber.
(An important practical guide to producing a book by hot-metal processes, before the arrival of computing.)
See ZCc.
Simon, Oliver, 1953. Introduction to typography. 5th imp. London: Faber and Faber.
(later edn 1963 by David Bland, copyright 1963 Mrs Ruth Simon, in Faber paper-covered editions)
See ZKj.
Simon, Oliver, 1954. Introduction to typography. Pbk edn. London: Penguin.
See ZLc.
Simon, Oliver, 1956. Printer and playground: an autobiography. London: Faber and Faber.
(Appendix, pp.141-147, provides the Index to Signature 1935-40.)
Simpson, Ann, 2010. Acquisitions by gift and purchase, for the Scottish National Gallery. Friends of the National Libraries: Annual report, 2009, pp.10-12.
(describing item 3 in her list, Sir Thomas Browne, Urne Buriall; see On)
Skipwith, Peyton, 2008. The Curwen Press's illustrators: rebels against commercial ugliness. Apollo Magazine (ISSN 0003-6536), pp.42-47.
Slinn, Judy, Sebastian Carter and Richard Southall, 2014. History of the Monotype Corporation, ed. Andrew Boag and Christopher Burke. London & Woodstock: Printing Historical Society and Vanbrugh Press. ISBN 9780900003158.
Stevenson, Iain, 2010. Book makers: British publishing in the twentieth century. London: British Library. ISBN 9780712309615.
Twemlow, Graham, 2009. E. McKnight Kauffer: The stencilled book illustrations. Fine Press Book Association: Parenthesis: journal of the Fine Press Book Association (ISSN 1462-9895), 16, pp.32-34.
(includes 3 illustrations in black and white)
Webb, Brian and Peyton Skipwith, 2009. Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon / Curwen Press. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club. (Design). ISBN 9781851495719.
(Shows many delightful colour reproductions, at reduced scale, of Curwen products no longer easy to find.)
Wells, Neil, 2022. Accidental alchemy: Oliver Simon, Signature magazine and the rise of British neo-romantic art. London: Unicorn. ISBN 9781914414343.
(Oliver Simon, Signature magazine and the rise of British Neo-romantic art)