Poster set in original Fell Types at Whittington
These lines from the German Translation of The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 323–333 by Johann Heinrich Voss, 1781, were set in Double Pica Fell, possibly as an apprentice exercise, and survived the move from Oxford to Whittington c.1995. Translation by Alison Ehrman, set in Double Pica Italic by Edwin Pickstone. 250 copies printed on Batchelor's Otter paper, also originally from Oxford University Press.
In 1995 the Press published A Book of Posters from the Whittington Press, which contained (in the A edition) thirty-five of our posters printed between 1974 and 1995, in the same types and on the same papers as the originals – indeed some of them were from the original printings, as will be a few in this new collection.
At that time, in 1995, the Press had printed some 100 posters, and in the eighteen years since then another 150 have been added to the total, and the thirty-five chosen here show off a great variety of typefaces on an equally esoteric variety of papers from England (some over a century old), France, Italy, Czechslovakia, Germany, Japan and Korea. They include illustrations from linocuts, wood-engravings, and in the special copies, pochoir, among a dazzling array of the Press’ extensive collection of founts.
Whittington posters are produced as a distraction from more important projects, usually in small editions of 100 or 200 copies, and given away or sold on our open days, but have nevertheless become an important part of the Press’ output in helping to spread the message about its activities. By their nature they are occasional and ephemeral, and the only time they will ever come together is in a collection such as this.
