Mr. Gladstone's Washi: A Survey of Reports on the Manfacture of Paper in Japan. The Parkes Report of 1871

Newtown, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 1984. Hardcover. Fine in very good slipcase.. Hardcover. Number 469 of 500 copies. A beautifully produced book from the famed Bird & Bull Press. The Bird & Bull Press was one of America’s oldest private presses, started in 1958 by Henry Morris – who describes a private press as “someone who prints books or ephemera related to his personal interests…” By starting the press Morris was hoping to “make use of the product of a new hobby – hand paper-making.” Many of the books published by Bird & Bull dealt with book related subjects, such as paper-making, printing, illustration, book binding, and typography. Henry Morris and his press thus played an important role in the study, preservation, and dissemination of printing history. In 2013, Morris announced that he was ending his press's 55 years of activity due to advanced age and difficulty finding exciting projects. The title refers to the repeated efforts by Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone in the 1860s to obtain information on Japanese papermaking. Under the guidance of Sir Harry Parkes, England's envoy during the period of the transfer of power from the shoguns to Emperor Meiji, three consular reports and a varied collection of handmade Japanese paper were assembled. These were shipped to England in 1871. This book describes these efforts, provides a facsimile of the Parkes Report, and a facsimile of the Kamisuki Chohoki woodcut illustrations. The book is accompanied by a separate portfolio of a set of color prints, of which two of the plates are missing. Both the book and portfolio are housed in a slipcase.

Bound in a paper cover reproduced from a decorated paper in the Parkes Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, with a dark red leather spine with a black spine title label printed in gilt. It was bound by Gray Parrot. The text was composed in Van Dijck types and printed on Hahnemühle paper. The woodcut facsimiles are printed on handmade Japanese Torinoko paper. The book is in fine condition. The portfolio's gray paper covers are toned along the fore-edges as are the edges of the slipcase and just about very good. Measures 8.25 x 11 inches. 134 pages plus three fold out illustrations. PRI/120224.