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1. Chiswick Press
Image above from The Chiswick Shakespeare, in the Hathi Trust Digital Library
From Gill Clegg’s Chiswick History web pages – Business
This private printing press was a forerunner of the private presses started by William Morris and others later in the 19th century. It was founded by Charles Whittingham (1767-1840) who had acquired a patent for extracting tar from old ropes. The hemp was pulped to produce a paper with a strong and silky finish while the tar was used to produce printing ink. In 1810 Whittingham took out a lease on High House (demolished 1880) in Chiswick Mall which he equipped as a printing works with a paper mill next door. The riverside location was probably selected because of its proximity to where barge loads of old ships’ ropes from London and other dockyards could be unloaded.
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In 1818 Chiswick Press moved to larger premises at College House, Chiswick Mall. After Whittingham’s death his nephew, Charles Whittingham (1797-1876) took over the business and continued printing at Chiswick until 1852 when he moved the Chiswick Press to its other office in Tooks Court, Chancery Lane.
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Chiswick Press specialised in the production of small dainty volumes, noted for their woodcut engravings. The books were printed by hand on iron presses (one of the presses belonging to the Chiswick Press is now in Gunnersbury Park Museum). The Whittinghams not only pioneered a movement towards finely produced books at reasonable prices but also to smaller-sized books which were easy to fit in a pocket. They thus posed a threat to other publishers of the time which favoured big books at big prices. The best-known example is The Chiswick Shakespeare.
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2. The Chiswick Shakespeare
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From An Antique Books Guide
The Chiswick Shakespeare is a renowned series that featured all of Shakespeare’s best-known works in handy pocket volumes, each with updated text and beautiful illustrations by Byam Shaw. The bindings are uniform, with stunning art-nouveau gilt patterning which compliments Shaw’s beautiful illustrations. A single volume can be bought for anything from £35-£70 whilst complete sets are very scarce and often reach low thousands. These are some of the most sought-after editions of any Shakespeare publication and look beautiful on a bookshelf. I have added a number of photographs to show both the deluxe vellum edition and the standard green cloth edition.
Byam Shaw’s great-grandson Justin Byam Shaw founded the west London food charity, The Felix Project, which was one of the Chiswick Book Festival’s charities for some years.
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3. Other private presses in Chiswick…
ERAGNY PRESS
From Gill Clegg’s Chiswick History web pages – Business
This private printing press was founded by Lucien Pissarro in 1894 and operated from his homes, first 62 Bath Road and, after 1902, The Brook, Stamford Brook Road. Thirty-two books were printed on Japanese handmade paper with Lucien’s own beautiful woodcuts decorating the text. Pissarro also designed his own typeface which he called The Brook Type. The press was forced to close in 1914 when war broke out since it was impossible to obtain the right paper and continental subscribers were lost.
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4. …in Hammersmith
Emery Walker & the Kelmscott Press – Emery Walker’s House
Emery Walker and the Doves Press – Emery Walker’s House
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5. …and in Ireland
The Dun Emer Press (fl. 1902–1908) was an Irish private press founded in 1902 by Evelyn Gleeson, Elizabeth Yeats and her brother William Butler Yeats, part of the Celtic Revival. It was named after the legendary Emer and evolved into the Cuala Press.
The Dun Emer Press: Wikipedia
The Dun Emer Press: Modernist Archives
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Chiswick Timeline Writers Trail
Read more stories via the Writers Tales page.
The Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books lists almost 500 writers who have written a book and lived in Chiswick W4, or written books about the area. See A Quick Guide.