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Doves Press

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Opening page of Genesis from the Doves Bible

The Doves Press was a private press based in Hammersmith, London. During nearly seventeen years of operation, Doves Press produced notable examples of twentieth-century typography. A distinguishing feature of its books was a specially-devised typeface, known variously as Doves Roman, Doves Press Fount of Type, or simply Doves Type.

Doves Press publishing business

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Financed by Anne Cobden-Sanderson, Doves Press was founded by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson sometime before 1900 (when he invited Emery Walker to join him). Their partnership was dissolved in 1908,[1] but Cobden-Sanderson continued printing.

Cobden-Sanderson had commissioned the press's own typeface – Doves Type – that was drawn under the supervision of Walker. The Doves Bindery that Cobden-Sanderson had set up in 1893 bound the books he and Walker printed. The press produced all its books using a single 16-point size of this house typeface between 1900 and 1916. The press is considered to have been a significant contributor to the Arts and Crafts movement, whose founders were associated with William Morris and the Kelmscott Press.

The capital letters of Doves Type were based on typefaces used by Nicolas Jenson from the 1470s and the lowercase letters were based on typefaces used by Jacobus Rubeus. Atypical punctuation, extremely wide capitals, and an offset dot of the letter 'i' were distinctive features of the typeface. Doves Type was similar to William Morris's earlier Golden Type and, like it, was cut by punchcutter Edward Prince.[2][3][4][5][6]

The press was located at No. 1 Hammersmith Terrace. It was named after The Dove, Hammersmith, a nearby riverside pub. The Doves Press was responsible for the Doves Bible (5 vols, 1902–1904), which the Columbia Encyclopedia considered one of the best examples of its kind.[3]

The Doves Type dispute

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By 1909, on the dissolution of their partnership, Cobden-Sanderson and Walker were in a protracted and bitter dispute involving the rights to Doves Type. As part of the partnership dissolution agreement, all rights to Doves Type were to pass to Walker upon the death of Cobden-Sanderson. Instead of letting this happen, on Good Friday, 21 March 1913, Cobden-Sanderson threw the matrices and punches into the River Thames off Hammersmith Bridge in London, a short walk from the press.[7] In the journals of Cobden-Sanderson, however, he recorded that he began the destruction of the typeface matrices and punches three years later, beginning on 31 August 1916 at midnight, when "it seemed a suitable night, and time".[8] He is said to have completed the task in January 1917, after 170 trips to the river,[9] although his Journals do not mention the culmination.

Re-creating Doves Type

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The first digital revival of Doves Type was made in 1994 by Swedish designer Torbjörn Olsson, who added an italic font for the typeface. His fonts reproduce the soft corners and imperfections of the printed characters.[10]

In 2013, designer Robert Green began to create a more polished digital version of Doves Type.[11] In 2015, after searching the riverbed of the Thames near Hammersmith Bridge with help from the Port of London Authority, Green managed to recover 150 pieces of the original type, which helped him to refine the re-created typeface.[12][13][14]

Two variants of Green's re-created Doves Type, Text and Headline fonts, are now distributed by Typespec. The Headline variant is used by the Thames Tideway Scheme for architectural lettering.[15][16]

Other digital revival projects include "Mebinac" by Alan Hayward as well as "Thames-Capsule" by Raphaël Verona and Gaël Faure.[10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "No. 28274". The London Gazette. 27 July 1909. p. 5759.
  2. ^ Naylor, Gillian (2003). "The things that might be: British design after Morris". In Waggoner, Diane (ed.). The beauty of life: William Morris & the art of design. New York: Thames and Hudson. p. 122-124. ISBN 0-500-28434-2.
  3. ^ a b "The Doves Press". The Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth ed.). May 2001. Archived from the original on 17 April 2006.
  4. ^ Dreyfus, John (1974). "New Light on the Design of Types for the Kelmscott and Doves Presses". The Library. s5-XXIX (1): 36–41. doi:10.1093/library/s5-XXIX.1.36.
  5. ^ Tuohy, Stephen (1990). "A New Photograph of Edward Prince, Typefounders' Punchcutter". Matrix. 10: 135–142.
  6. ^ "Private Press Types". Elston Press. Archived from the original on 22 August 2021. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  7. ^ Green, Robert. "History of the Doves Type". Typespec Ltd. Archived from the original on 13 September 2022. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  8. ^ The Journals of Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson 1879–1922. Vol. II. 1926. p. 296.
  9. ^ "The fight over the Doves". The Economist. 21 December 2013. Archived from the original on 15 June 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  10. ^ a b Devroye, Luc. "Doves Type". On Snot and Fonts. Archived from the original on 22 August 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  11. ^ "The Doves Type". Typespec Ltd. Archived from the original on 22 August 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  12. ^ Steven, Rachael (3 February 2015). "Recovering the Doves Type". CreativeReview Blog. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  13. ^ Wilmshurst, Nick (7 February 2015). "Lost typeface printing blocks found in river Thames". BBC News. Archived from the original on 26 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  14. ^ Black, Holly (5 May 2024). "Remnants of a Legendary Typeface Rescued From the River Thames". Artnet News. Retrieved 6 May 2024. featuring images of the punches and printed examples of the typeface
  15. ^ TypeRoom (28 November 2022). "The Doves Type, Revisited: Robert Green upgrades an iconic typeface". www.typeroom.eu. Archived from the original on 29 December 2022. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
  16. ^ "Doves Type: Revisited". Typespec. Archived from the original on 29 December 2022. Retrieved 29 December 2022.

Sources

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  • Tidcombe, Marianne (2002). The Doves Press. London, England; New Castle, Delaware: British Library; Oak Knoll Press. ISBN 9780712347082. OCLC 59380840.

Further reading

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  • Cable, C. (1974). The printing types of the Doves press: Their history and destruction. Library Quarterly, 44(3), 219-230.
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