7 MAY 1921, Page 22

The Victoria and Albert Museum has issued Notes on Printing

and Bookbinding by Miss S. T. Prideaux (Stationery Office, Is. 6c1.), in connexion with a special exhibit of tools and materials used in these crafts. Miss Prideaux, herself an accomplished bookbinder, writes from full knowledge. Sir Cecil Smith in his preface justly remarks that " in printing, as in other crafts, the fact that in the present day so much use is necessarily made of mechanical appliances is no excuse for ugliness or lack of proportion." Machine setting may be just as good as hand setting if the fount of type is rightly chosen and rightly used. The pamphlet is illustrated with excellent facsimiles of historic types, with photographs of fine bindings and with reproductions of early woodcuts representing the printer's art.