LOOKING
BACK
The Doves Press
TRUE TO TYPE
HAMMERSMITH & CHISWICK
T
here have been three
private presses, publishing
limited editions of fine
books, in Hammersmith.
The Kelmscott Press, the
Doves Press and the Eragny
Press were all based near the Thames
in Hammersmith, and existed within a
comparatively short span of years, 1891-
1916. H&F Council owns a complete set
of the Kelmscott Press books, as well as
20 productions of the Doves Press and
eight of the Eragny Press.
William Morris set up his own press
at 16 Upper Mall in 1888, naming it
after his house, Kelmscott Manor. Morris
designed three types for the books, drew
the borders, ornaments and initials and
commissioned illustrations.
The issued titles included Morris’s
own works, medieval texts and
poetry. The masterpiece of the Press
was The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
(1896), illustrated with 87 wood
22 / 23
engravings designed by Morris’ friend
Sir Edward Burne-Jones (who lived in
North End, Fulham).
The Doves Press evolved from the
Doves Bindery, founded in 1893 at
15 Upper Mall by Thomas James
Cobden-Sanderson. In 1900, he and the
typographer Emery Walker (another
friend and colleague of Morris) started
the Doves Press at 1 Hammersmith
Terrace. The typeface was designed
by Walker and the calligraphy of the
coloured capital letters was the work
of the gifted but eccentric calligrapher
Edward Johnston, who like Emery
Walker lived in Hammersmith Terrace.
Doves Press books have no illustrations
or decorative borders.
The Press produced editions of Milton
and other classical English writers, as
well as a five-volume edition of The
English Bible, bound in white vellum.
However, Walker and Cobden-Sanderson
did not get on well, and after 1909
Walker withdrew from the enterprise.
The last books were printed in 1916, and
in 1917 Cobden-Sanderson threw the
types of the Press into the Thames so
that no one else could use them.
These small books have
pretty bindings as well as
attractive illustrations
As well as the Doves Press, another
local press which started soon after was
the Eragny Press, established by Lucien
Pissarro (eldest son of the artist Camille
Pissarro) and his wife Esther in 1894.
They lived at The Brook, Stamford
Brook Road, Chiswick. The Eragny Press
published about 30 books, some using
the Vale Press type and some the Brook
type which Lucien designed himself.
The small books have pretty bindings
as well as attractive illustrations. The
Eragny Press lasted until 1914.