ENGLISH PRINTING.

English Printers' Ornaments. By Henry R. Plomer. (Grafton and Co., Coptic House, Coptic Street, Bloomsbury. £2 2s. net. )

THE craft of printing to-day, and not merely in this country, has reached a very high level ; it is, perhaps, more progressive than any other of the crafts. It cannot be said too often that the typographical renaissance which has brightened our bookshelves is directly due to the work of the modern private presses. There are many to-day who are disposed to look coldly on the endeavours of William Morris, and because, in some instances, his Kelmscott books are not easily readable, to decry the work of his press. We should remember that

Morris's services to printing are not to be measured by the actual work he accomplished. His most valuable achievement

was to interest men again in the production of books, and to show that in the hands of those possessed of courage, taste, and learning, the work -of the printer could become an art.

The lesson was badly needed, and the response was rapid. Morris's many imitators symbolize the success and the necessity of his teaching.

The interest in printing thus aroused has resulted (natur- ally) in a great increase in the literature of typography. Such books as the monumental two volumes of Mr. D. B. Updike and the vast volume which Mr. Stanley Morison has promised us, will do much to consolidate our knowledge and experience, and insure against such a decline as that which the seventeenth century saw. And such books as Mr. Henry R. Plomer's English Printers' Ornaments are designed to fill up the fissures in our knowledge, and as contributions to history may be very valuable. Unfortunately, Mr. Plomer has succeeded in falling into most of the pitfalls awaiting writers on specialized and technical matters. His volume leaves much to be desired in its arrangement. Though there is an index which records even a passing reference to Bodoni, there is a surprising absence of cross references, and hardly anything in the text to indicate which of the many ornaments discussed are actually repro- duced.

Mr. Plomer writes of the decoration of books apart from book illustration. Printers' ornaments include head and tail pieces, initial letters, borders (but not one-piece borders) to .

title pages and text, decorative blocks, and the fleuron, whether used as head-piece, tail-piece, border or simple decor- ation. The most interesting chapters are those on head and tail pieces. The first of these deals with small ornaments, and we are given a fair idea of the combinations and variations in which the hard-worked fleurons have been set. Then larger

decorative blocks are dealt with, and Mr. Plomer has much to say about the unjust neglect of Michael Burghers and his large

engraved head and tail pieces and initial letters. Mr. Plomer does justice to Michael Burghers—more justice than his block makers gave to those of Burghers' designs reproduced. In his survey of modern work Mr. Plomer makes us feel that he is hardly as much interested in modern developments as he is in old examples. English Printers' Ornaments might have been a useful book, but it is marred by vague sentences (see the last sentence on p. 64, and the first sentence of the last paragraph on p. 63), faulty arrangement and poorly-printed plates. The book itself is not a satisfactory production ; the paper is bad, the cheap imitation marbled end papers are revoltingly ugly, and the binding is distinguished only by the extremely bad modern face type used for the lettering on the back.

The second number of The Fleuron reminds us that in typographical matters to be national is to be provincial. It contains articles from France, Germany, and the United States, with another on the subject of foreign decorated papers. The first, by Julius Meier-Graefe, is on the German William Morris, Emil Rudolf Weiss, typographer, painter, engraver, calligrapher, collector, type designer, etcher and translator. This accomplished man has done so much to raise German printing standards that it is important for us to study his methods and results. There is reproduced an etched page of Greek script (etched and translated by Mr. Weiss) which, as Mr. Meier-Graefe truly says, " would have delighted Beards- ley," and certainly delights us. Mr. D. B. Updike contributes a valuable article, " On the Planning of Printing," which should be in the hands of every person responsible for type- setting. M. Pierre Gusman writes of Edouard Pelletan and his work, with several reproductions of specimen pages and a bibliography, and then follows a very important article by Mr. Stanley Morison called " Towards an Ideal Type." In a well-illustrated paper he endeavours to show that the modern world has been misled by its admiration of Jenson's type into perpetuating the errors of that typefounder, his unduly tall capitals. To Mr. Morison the centuries tell " a tale . . . of increasingly arrogant capitals." A close study of Jenson and da Spiro is the foundation on which most of our best modern types rest ; but a careful examination of early manuscripts

has convinced Mr. Morison that in the best of these manu- scripts the capitals rarely range with the ascenders. In his view the letter cut for Aldus by Francesco Griffo " easily

surpasses Jenson," and particularly in that the upper case is a trifle lighter in line than the lower, and that the capitals are noticeably less high than the ascenders. It is a stimulating

article, well reinforced by facts in the form of illustrations of French and Italian calligraphy and printing, and by arguments drawn from present practice.

Other contents are an article on Mr. Hornby's Ashendene Press by Mr. B. H. Newdigate, one on "The Nonage of Nineteenth-century Printing in England," by Mr. Holbrook Jackson, another on " Decorated Papers," by Mr. Roger Ingpen, book reviews, some fine examples of • current com- mercial work, and advertisements.

The Fleuron is admirably produced in monotype Baskerville on good paper, not too soft. The illustrations deserve special praise ; they occupy roughly thirty pages, and could hardly be bettered. The book is strongly bound in red cloth, with black board sides, a striking and simple combination. Book collectors, publishers, and printers should be grateful to the enterprising editor, Mr. Oliver Simon.

.A. J. A. SY31ONS.