A Scandal in Bohemia

Hot Metal Typecasting (Intertype, Ludlow), Letterpress Printing (Windmill), Foil (C&P), Bookbinding

An extensive all-letterpress project featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Scandal in Bohemia, the first of the Sherlock Holmes short stories.

This project was completed in Ackley, Iowa under the guidance of the late master printer Jim Daggs.

48 pages. Edition of 50.

Angled photograph of front bookcover with red book cloth and copper foil title stamp

Closeup detail of Sherlock Holmes letterpress chapter opening page

colophon

All body type was cast in hot metal Baskerville (specifically Intertype’s Baskerville, which was based on the original punches and recut under the direction of Stanley Morison at Monotype), one 20-pica line at a time on a 1957 Intertype Linecasting machine.

The initials on the half-title and title pages are set in 48-pt. lowercase Fraktur, a version released by Ludlow. The ornament on each chapter opening was also released by Ludlow, and both were cast on a 1962 Ludlow Typograph.

Closeup photograph of letterpress text debossed into laid offwhite paper

All interior pages were printed on a 1963 Heidelberg Windmill press on Strathmore Americana (Mount Vernon White) paper. The cover plate and half-title foil stamping were hand-fed on a Chandler & Price platen press.