First edition, one of 800 copies in boards, from an edition of 900. Pochoir is one of the main subjects of 1988’s Matrix 8: there is an introduction to the technique by Vance Gerry of the Weather Bird Press – who also designed the patterned paper which covers these boards and the charming pochoir illustration on the dustwrapper – and the article also includes a tipped-in sample of decorated paper using pochoir as repeat pattern. This is followed by David Butcher on ‘Pochoir at Curwen’. Decorated and marbled papers form another theme in this issue, from Robin Heyeck on ‘Marbling as Book Illustration’ via Tanya Schmoller’s ‘Chinese Decorated Papers’ (with samples) to Schmoller on Edward Seymour’s Fancy Paper Company, which includes a short essay by Seymour’s nephew William on ‘Marbling with my Uncle’.

A third major topic of this issue is typography, including Stan Nelson on the intricacies of ‘Cutting a New Music Type’, the Smithsonian Institution’s Elizabeth Harris on its typographic collections, and Brooke Crutchley’s discussion of ‘Types for Books at Cambridge, 1923-45’. Other articles on notable presses and their founders include a profile of Gloria Stuart by Ward Ritchie and Christopher Skelton’s ‘In the Golden Cockerel’s Footprints’. Insights into wood-engraving (Howard Phipps, Simon Brett), ‘The Printing of Mathematics’ (David Wishart), ‘Edward Bawden’s Bird’s Nest’ (David McKitterick), the correspondence between Stanley Morison and Jan van Krimpen, and many others articles complete the typically varied contents of this issue of Matrix.

This copy is from the library of the late David and Diana Wilson. David Wilson was a printer, friend and collaborator of Graham Williams (the founder of the Florin Press), and collector of private press books.