Things in the Lead Graffiti collection that connect directly with Porter Garnett and may have important significance to Lead Graffiti.
Booklet : Sixty Five Years of Fine Printing at Carnegie : Exhibit at Carnegie Mellon University Libraries' Fine and Rare Book Room Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
page 2 : This tilling of new ground prepared the way for a course in "Fine Printing" for September 1922.
page 3 : Within a few years after Carnegie Tech established a fine printing acytiviyy, facilities or courses were initated at New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chicago Art Institute, and the Art Students League in New York.
page 4 : Formal dedication of the Laboratory Press took place April 17, 1923.
page 4 : the motto of the press : Nil vulgare, nil pertriti, nil inepti—nothing commonplace, nothing hackneyed, nothing inept.
page 4 : " . . . the Laboratory Press is, in the purest since of the term, a private press; and its purpose, being solely educational, it may be said to be the first private press to be dedicated exclusively to educational ends."
page 4 : "There is no word in English (or any other language I know) that means indestructability by means of beauty…" My word for this quality is beaumenance, from beau (bellus) and maneo. But call it what you will, it seems to me to be a think worth striving for."
page 18 : books / projets to look for 1) A documentary account of the beginnings of the Labortory press, CTI 1927; #21 the outlook for typography; #53 the Oop Unit; Selections from Poe's Marginalia, Decalogue, Jack the Ripper They Never Found Him.
Book : Philosophical Writings on the Ideal Book by Porter Garnett, compiled by Jack Stauffacher. A few notable callouts :
page 59 : "You may remember that I was not a believer in layouts for printing, preferring to work things out in my head." [Lead Graffiti has followed this philosophy of "think then do" since day 1]
page 68 : "Mr. Eric Gill, in his Typography, is also pertinent. 'There are then,' he says, 'two typographies, as there are two worlds, and apart from god or profits, the test of one is mechanical perfection, and the other sanctity–the commercial article at its best is simply physically serviceable and, per accidens, beautiful in its efficiency; the work of art at its best is beautiful in its very substance and, per accidens, as serviceable as any article of commerce.'"
page 70 : Figure 10
page 116 : "While I was in London I placed with Harrild & Company an order for two super-royal Albion hand-presses and conferred with Mr. (later Sir) Emery Walker regarding the making at a future date..."
page 126 : from a letter from P.G. 2 January 1930 - "What I have told you of the happenings of December 21st was sufficient for that day, don't you think? But what happened the day before? Well, my two hand presses were erected in Room 426 Frick Building. There I am established for the next three years, at least."
page 224 : "Probably the most ambitious publication of the Laboratory Press was The Fine book a symposium of essays and articles by various critics, artists, and craftsmen—Henri Focillion, Lewes Mumford and Valéry, Eric Gill, William Morris, T.J. Cobden-Sanderson....Of this book Ruth Shepard Granniss has Written, 'This is not a plea for machine process versus handiwork. A careful reading os the 'symposium' on the Fine Book, so beautifully and lovingly printed on the iron hand-press by Porter Garnett and his students of the Laboratory Press, teaches the futility of such a thing."
page 249 : photo caption of our Albion or its brother : The Laboratory's Albion unceremoniously abandoned in the Fine Arts Building, at Carnegie Tech (Carnegie Mellon Univerity), 1958.
2 copies of a booklet : A description of the catalogue of the Frick Collection, reprinting its introduction by Sir Osbert Sitwell .
by Standard, Paul and published by Frick Art Reference Library, Pittsburgh (1949)
About this Item: Frick Art Reference Library, Pittsburgh, 1949. Wraps. Condition: Very Good. 27 p. With a sheet from the Catalogue, and explanatory note by Paul A. Bennett laid in. Designed by Bruce Rogers & printed by Robert Haas at the Ram Press. Size: 31 Cm.
50 for Edna
Sheets for the Typophiles which contain an origional sheet from The Frick Collection Catalogue.
Three student projects from the 1920s.