Lead, Tin & Antimony
A sampling of types held in cases or cast fresh at the Greenboathouse Press
Jason Dewinetz
From the Prospectus:
¶ Since setting up to print letterpress in 2008, a few hundred cases of type have found their way into the Greenboathouse shop. Many came with the acquisition of the late Jim Rimmer’s typecasting equipment in 2010, along with Jim’s small collection of matrices for casting new type. I was then able, in 2014, to acquire a handful of sets of rather rare and compelling matrices which I’ve been eager to cast and put to use. Lead, Tin & Antimony presents 24 typefaces in a wide range of sizes, printed in over 25 colours. The designs include compositions of poetry, typographic quotations and extracts, short excerpts of literary prose and philosophy, as well as typographic specimens and experiments. Some of these types are beautiful yet understated faces, capable of doing justice to any page of text, but the bulk of the faces displayed in this project are those for which I have very little quantity, such as a single case of 24pt foundry Palatino italic or Zapf’s Civilité, or even the bashed up old Franklin Gothic used one last time before tossing it into the pot. Many, however, were cast fresh for the book, which offered the opportunity to both have some fun casting and also crank out exactly what I needed for a given page. As such, Lead, Tin & Antimony serves not so much as a specimen book, but an eclectic and playful tour through some of the cabinets and matrix cases here at the Greenboathouse Press.
Jason Dewinetz is a writer, editor, publisher and typographer originally from, and now living back in, the Okanagan Valley. With an academic background in English Literature (BA. UVic, MA, U of Alberta), he is the author of The Gift of a Good Knife (Outlaw Editions), Moving to the Clear (NeWest Press), Clench (Gaspereau Press), Friends & Family, and co-author of A Bibliography of the Black Sparrow Press (University of Alberta Press). He is the founding editor, publisher and designer of Greenboathouse Press, and his design and production for Greenboathouse has brought in more than a dozen national book design awards. Jason is a current board member and past-North American Chair of the Fine Press Book Association, and is an instructor in the Writing and Publishing program at Okanagan College.
2016-17
8.25" × 11.5", 56pp. 45 + A-J copies.
Regular: $500 / Deluxe: $950
ISBN: Regular: 978-1-894744-37-9 / Deluxe: 978-1-894744-38-6
Out of Print
Alcuin Society Book Design Award Winner
Recent News:
Lead, Tin & Antimony brought in our 12th Alcuin Award for Excellence in Book Design in Canada.
Have a look at The Book Hunters of Katpadi author Pradeep Sebastian's review of Lead, Tin & Antimony.
Colophon:
Printed from over 20 different types, many cast fresh for this book on an English Monotype Super Caster, some freighted over from Holland, some shipped by post, some hauled in the trunk of my car and some cast by good friends, but all hand set and printed on a Vandercook 219 and 15-21 into Tim Barrett’s wonderful handmade paper during the summer months of 2016. The cranky old fish and the pathetic dead mouse were both engraved by Wesley Bates. The edition is issued in two states: a regular issue of 45 copies (1–45) in quarter leather and paper over boards, enclosed in a paper-covered slipcase, and a deluxe issue of 10 press-lettered copies (A–J), bound as above but including an additional suite of 10 prints held in a portfolio, and a photographic essay in paper wrappers, all enclosed in a leather-backed drop-spine box. Bound by Alanna Simenson in Sooke, BC.