The final piece of printing had been done, the sheets folded and inserted to form sections. John Abell had now to sign each copy of the colophon page before the sections were collated into books. Happily this coincided with John having finished cutting the two lino blocks planned for the cover, so a trip to Catchmays Court was organised to include our mutual friend, Bill Garnett, of Pomegranate Fine Art.
As John signed, I slipped the page into its section and we talked . . . about . . . what more appropriate than “what shall we do for out next book”! These photographs show the aftermath of all this, a little lunch, during which the pile of signed sheets was pushed ignominiously to the edge of the table!
The next day saw Frances performing her lonely dance round the piles of sections to produce ever-growing piles of collated copies – ready for transport to the binders. That is when I have completed the final printing, of the cover blocks.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I hasten to take photographs of the blocks themselves so that the effect of the artist’s original coloured drawing can be seen and remembered when the black ink of the printing obscures it for ever.
It all looks wonderful and of course I recognise the last stage of the long, hard and exciting process of producing a new book with the OSP.
I'm envious that you've reached the finishing line of this marvellous book after such a short production time while I'm still slogging away on the Trans-Siberian images. But I'm so looking forward to the day when we can sit around your table, sign the colophon and celebrate The End of the TS journey.