It gathers essays on a selection of British printers, illustrated with sets of black-and-white photographs taken by Ski Anderson. His contribution to the beautiful Book is less often trumpeted. For he was the father of the modern private press movement; his Kelmscott Press, founded in the last years of his life and named after his house in Oxfordshire, made a generation of would-be publishers, just as mass- production printing was under way, look again at how a book was built and presented.
The astonishing thing about the art of book printing is that it was born perfect. While the practice and machinery has subtly changed, a change that has accelerated with the spread of offset printing and the application of computer technology, the design of the book has not improved since the late 15th century (Morris’s own inspiration), when Gutenberg and Caxton and Aldus Manutius pioneered the process.
To enjoy houses and good books in self-respect and decent comfort seems to me to be the pleasurable end towards which all societies of human beings ought now to struggle.”
Morris’s contribution to the beautiful House was spectacularly displayed in last year’s monumental exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Five runners-up will receive a pair of tickets for the Paco de Lucia concert together with a gift box of E&J Gallo Turning Leaf wine. To enter answer the following question: In which country does Ernest & Julio Gallo produce their wine? Send your details on a postcard to Oris comp, c/o Serious, Windsor House, 83 Kingsway, London WC2B 6SD, by 17 Oct.
For a free festival guide call 0171-405 5974. William Morris had a credo: “If I were asked to say what is at once the most important production of Art and the thing most to be longed for, I should answer a beautiful House, and if I were further asked to name the production next in importance and the next thing to be longed for I should answer a beautiful Book. The London Eye, in conjunction with Oris and the festival’s official wine sponsor Ernest and Julio Gallo, is offering the following prizes.
Two first prize-winners will receive a pair of tickets (plus CDs) for leading flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia at the Barbican on 9 Nov, as well as dinner for two at the Barbican Centre restaurant Searcy’s with Gallo wine. The Oris London Jazz Festival, which starts on 7 November, promises a citywide celebration of one of the century’s most popular music forms. Highlights of the 10-day event, which features artists from around the globe, include jazz visionaries from the 1960s, McCoy Tyner and Butch Morris, as well as guitarists Paco de Lucia (right) and Ali Farka Toure. There’s also a pronounced Mediterranean feel to the proceedings, both through the uplifting music of Radio Tarifa and Grand Union’s collaboration with Sabahat Akkiraz.
Parkington concentrated obsessively on important works from British factories – from 18th-century tableware through to 1970s Whitefriars products. Phaidon, pounds 39.99.Dish up Maiolica dish, (left) from theHolburne Museum, Bath’s “adopt a treasure” scheme Individuals can adopt an item in their own name Donations pay for conservation Details: 01225 466669.. Auction at Christie’s (0171-581 7611), 16-17October.
From the Finland Station Helsinki’s huge Nordic lanterns (above), one of the many magnificent illustrations in Steven Parissien’s Station to Station, a celebration of railway life and architecture. Top drawer This rare Charles Rennie Mackintosh cabinet (right) is auctioned at the end of the month Dig deep, the guide price is pounds 200,000- plus Sotheby’s (0171-408 5170).
Joyfish tufted wool rug (below) from an exhibition of new work by Annie Sherburne at the Lesley Craze Gallery Sherburne designed fabrics for Jean Muir collections Gallery details: 0171-608 0393. Glassworks 1932 Gray-Stan vase, pounds 200-pounds 400 (bottom right), and 19th-century cheroot holders, pounds 50 each (below), from the huge Michael Parkington collection. Carbon-fibre Rossignol Cut 10.4 Super L skis (below), pounds 249.95, pounds 299.50 with binding, from Snow+Rock (mail order, 01932 569569). Right: the United States Air Force Stealth bomber (not for sale)Dunhill’s AD2000 carbon-fibre pens (right) cost pounds 295 for a ballpoint, pounds 575 for a fountain pen, are virtually unbreakable, and are leakproof at any altitude For stockists, call 0171-290 8600. pounds 2,750 + VAT, from Spymaster, 3 Portman Square, London W1 (0171-486 3885)Fast, flashy and promising toes and ankles the ultimate in carbon- fibre protection, the Bauer RH 5000 Composite hockey boot is pounds 345, from Skate Attack, 95 Highgate Road, Kentish Town, London NW5 (0171-267 6961). Meanwhile, we can all enjoy it elsewhere.It’s the expensive toys that have carbon fibre lavished on them, like the 1997 Rothmans Williams Renault (below). The mostly carbon fibre Lola ‘Ultimate Bike’, an aerodynamic miracle that weighs 1.6kg and clocks 200mph, was sold by auctioneers Bonhams last month for pounds 23,000The 6-million-candlepower Maxa-Beam searchlight (right), designed for military search-and-rescue missions, supplies enough light from 5km away to allow a newspaper to be read.