Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Nearing the end of the Rich Mouse's tale . . .

With the end of 2015 near, the completion of “The Rich Mouse” limited-edition project at the Tampa Book Arts Studio is also in sight!

Early this week, Richard Mathews, Carl Mario Nudi, and Joshua Steward completed the printing of the unique, Lankes-inspired decorative papers for the hardback covers on the Vandercook 219AB proof press.

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“The Rich Mouse” is a hand-bound, limited letterpress edition of the nearly-lost short story by woodcut artist J. J. Lankes, accompanied by his woodcut illustrations and printed on his 1848 Hoe Washington iron handpress here at the Tampa Book Arts Studio.

Since the completion of the printing of the four, eight-page signatures of “The Rich Mouse” story on the Lankes handpress, we have continued to work on the various elements needed to complete the project. In addition to the final letterpress run of these cover sheets, we also designed and typeset the title and spine labels, and the other premiums offered as rewards for contributing to the Kickstarter campaign used to raise funds for the production of the book.

The signatures, cover papers, and title labels soon will be ready to deliver to bookbinder David Barry of Griffin Bookbinding in St. Petersburg, who will hand bind each of the 150 copies of the book.

TBAS Associate Sean Donnelly's near-daily documentation of the project’s progress with photographs can be seen on his Flickr page.

You can reserve your copy of
“The Rich Mouse” at