Oxford Fine Press Book Fair

Saturday March 24, and Sunday March 25
The Kassam Stadium, Grenoble Road, Oxford, OX4 4XP, tel; 01865 337600

Solmentes will be showing the new book Pizza from Scratch together with other titles such as Taxi Driver Curry and Ink on the Elbow – come and meet the Pizzaiolo and . . . 

Jon Snyder (left), winner of the prize draw at the Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair
being presented with his print, "Heirloom Tomatoes"

Enter the prize draw to win an original signed print by David Esslemont from Pizza from Scratch (see Terms and Conditions below).

Organized by the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association in conjunction with The Fine Press Book Association. Three lectures are planned for Sunday:

11.00am: Alexandra Franklin and Richard Lawrence on the Bodleian Library’s Sonnets printing project
12 noon: Peter Lawrence on ‘William Morris and Wood Engraving: The Earthly Compromise’
2.00pm: Ferdinand Ulrich on ‘Hermann Zapf, Jack Stauffacher, and the birth of a type’

Exhibitors include presses, specialist book dealers, trade suppliers, and related organisations. 

1	Incline Press		49	Caliban Press
2	Janus Press		50	Solmentes Press
3	Ken Ferguson		51	Book Arts Center Halle
4	Stella Press		52	Susan Allix
5	Studio House		53	Bonnefant Press
6	The Hedgehog Press		54	AlbertoTallone Editore
7	Walking Bird Press		55	Linda Landers Fine Books
8	Yew Tree Press		56	Alexandra Frohloff Prints (13)
9	Grapho Editions / Parrot Press		57	BABEL
10	Reading Room Press / The Blue Print Press		58	Inky Parrot Press/Artist Choice Editions
11	Private Libraries Association		59	Altazimuth Press & Tom Paine Press
12	Society of Wood Engravers		60	Hand & Eye Editions
13	Old School Press		61	Elies Plana
14	Old Stile Press		62	Editions Verdigris
15	Parvenu Press		63	Strawberry Press
16	The Fork and Broom Press		64	St James Press
17	The Lytlewode Press		65	Paekakariki Press
18	Whittington Press		66	MKB Editions
19	Woodcraft Press		67	Petrarch Press
20	Andy English (The Isle Handpress)		68	Sherwin Beach Press
21	Evergreen Press		69	Nomad Letterpress
22	Fleece Press		70	Lone Oak Press
23	Foolscap Press		71	Maria Veronica San Martin
24	Greenboathouse Press		72	Julian Smith
25	Oxford Scribes		73	Cheltenham Rare Books
26	Oxford Guild of Printers		74	Boxwood Rare Books & Prints
27	Ludlow Bookbinders Ltd		75	Bond Books
28	Leslie Gerry Editions		76	Ballantyne Way
29	ottoGraphic		77	Ariadne Books
30	Russell Maret		78	Vacant
31	Midnight Paper Sales		79	Veronica Watts
32	Salvage Press		80	Blackwell's Rare Books
33	Kate Holland Bookbinding		81	Michael Taylor
34	Paper Resources		82	Maggs
35	John Purcell Paper		83	Michael Morris
36	Andy Moore Calligraphy		84	Scott Brinded
37	Designer Bookbinders		85	Tracey Bush
38	Harmatan Leather Ltd		86	Woodbridge Rare Books
39	Harmatan Leather Ltd		87	Wykeham Books
40	J Hewit & Sons Ltd		88	Jennings Fine Art / Fine Press Poetry (A Moorhouse)
41	J Hewit & Sons Ltd		89	Valeria Brancaforte Prints
42	Illouz		90	Leopard Studio Editions
43	Mixolydian Editions		91	Shirley Sharoff Editions
44	Impress		92	Rickaro Books
45	Design for Today		93	Reed Contemporary Books
46	Nikodim Press		94	Sophie Schneideman Rare Books
47	Chevington Press		95	Lux Mentis
48	p's and q's Press

Prize Draw

To win this signed original print (£148 value), “Heirloom Tomatoes” a hand-colored linocut by David Esslemont from Pizza from Scratch visit the Solmentes Press table (#50, first floor) at the Book Fair and put your business card or name and email address in the box provided. A winner will be drawn at the end of the fair.

Heirloom Tomatoes, linocut

Terms and conditions

1. By submitting your personal information you agree to receive emails from Solmentes Press containing offers and developments that we think may interest you. You will be given the opportunity to unsubscribe on every email that we send. 2. The closing date of the Prize Draw is 5 pm on March 25, 2018. 3. One winner will be chosen from a random draw by an exhibitor at the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair.  The draw will take place on March 25, 2018, at 5 pm. 4. The winner will receive the original signed print, “Heirloom Tomatoes” a hand-colored linocut by David Esslemont. 5. The winner will be notified on March 25, and if not present must provide a postal address to claim their prize. 6. Only one entry per person.

Pizza from Scratch preview in New York

At the Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair, Saturday 9 April

Pizza from Scratch

Pre-publication special offers: Deluxe $4800 $2400, Regular $2400 $1200

Heirloom tomatoes and basil are raised from seed; ground is cleared to plant organic wheat; and clay is mixed with sand to make a wood-fired oven. 

The wheat will be ground into flour for a sourdough crust; the tomatoes made into sauce; milk into cheese; and pork becomes salami. Eventually the oven is fired up, the pizzas assembled and cooked, magically, in less than a couple of minutes.
This is a picture book – woodcuts and lino cuts document every stage of making pizza from scratch including scale drawings for the adobe clay wood-fired oven.

edition details

Hand printed in an edition of fifty copies from the original wood and lino blocks, approximately 10 x 12 ins, landscape, with around forty illustrations.

Five deluxe copies bound in white alum-tawed goatskin with a design based on one of the pizzas painted in acrylic ink, with gold tooling. Sewn on linen tapes with hand-sewn headbands and leather-jointed Italian handmade-paper end leaves, in a felt-lined cloth-covered drop-back box. $4800 (pre-publication subscription price: $2400)

Forty-five regular copies in printed cloth-covered boards, presented in a drop-back box. $2400 (pre-publication subscription price: $1200)

Publication – February 2017

The Fine Press Book Association in collaboration with the Manhattan Vintage Book & Ephemera Show on Saturday, April 11, 2015, from 8 am to 4 pm at St. Vincent Ferrer parochial school on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 65th Street. Featuring thirty presses from across the US, UK, Canada and Russia.

This is an addition to the Vintage Book Fair, known colloquially as the "Shadow Fair." It is a less-formal, less-expensive fair held during the same weekend as the New York Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory. This year, for the first time, it will be located right around the corner from the main fair at the Park Avenue Armory. 

Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair

Saturday March 10, from 10 am to 5 pm
St Vincent Ferrer Church, 869 Lexington Avenue at 66th Street, New York, NY

Solmentes at the 2016 Manhattan Book Fair showing the prototype for Pizza from Scratch

Solmentes will be showing the new book Pizza from Scratch together with other titles such as Taxi Driver Curry and Ink on the Elbow – come and meet the Pizzaiolo!



The Fine Press Book Association in collaboration with the Manhattan Vintage Book & Ephemera Show is pleased to announce the fifth annual Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair. This is an addition to the Vintage Book Fair, known colloquially as the "Shadow Fair." It is a less-formal, less-expensive fair held during the same weekend as the New York Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory. This year, as it was last year, it will be located right across the street from the main fair at the Park Avenue Armory. However, it will take place only one day: Saturday, March 10.
Admission is $15 for Adults, $7 for ages 13–21, and free for under 13 with a paid adult.

Exhibitors

Alice Austin, Philadelphia, PA
Atelier-Galerie A. Piroir, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Booklyn, Felice Tebbe + Tracey Ober, Brooklyn, NY
Anne Covell, San Diego, CA
Caliban Press, Mark + Gregory McMurray, Canton, NY  
Gerald Cloud Rare Books and Manuscripts, San Francisco, CA 
Flying Paper Press, Jody Williams, Minneapolis, MN 
Foolscap Press, Lawrence G. Van Velzer + Peggy Gotthold, Santa Cruz, CA 
Harsimus Press, Jersey City, NJ
Hesterberg Press, William + Barbara Hesterberg, Evanston, IL
Hirundo Press, Caroline Saltzwedel, Hamburg, Germany
Intima Press, Mindy Beloff, New York, NY
Alexandra Janezic, Iowa City, Iowa
Sara Langworthy, Iowa City, Iowa
Lead Graffiti, Ray Nichols + Jill Cypher, Newark, DE
Nancy Loeber, Brooklyn, NY  
Luminice Press, Thomas Parker + Mary Agnes, Philadelphia, PA  
Russell Maret, New York, NY 
Emily Martin + Tess Varney, Iowa City, IA 
Two Hands Press, Kitty Maryatt, Playa Vista, CA 
Midnight Paper Sales, Gaylord Shanilec, Stockholm, WI  
Sarah Nicholls, Brooklyn, NY 
Ninja Press, Carolee Campbell, Sherman Oaks, CA 
Radha Pandey, Iowa City, IA
Papeterie Saint-Armand, David Carruthers + Denise LaPointe, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Sarah Plimpton + Robert Paxon, New York, NY
Pied Oxen Printers, David + Kathleen Sellers, Hopewell, NJ 
Purgatory Pie Press, Esther Smith, Dikko Faust, New York, NY 
Robin Price Publisher, Middletown, CT 
Maria Veronica San Martin, Brooklyn, NY and Santiago, Chile 
CB Sherlock, + Jim Polakowski, Minneapolis, MN 
Sherwin Beach Press, Robert McCamant, Chicago, IL  
Solmentes Press, David Esslemont, Decorah, IA  
Starshaped Press, Jennifer Farrell, Chicago, IL  
Tideline Press, Leonard Seastone, West Sayville, NY  
Two Ponds Press, Kenneth Shure + Liv Rockefeller, Rockport, ME  

Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair

A great pitch by my friend Russell Maret:

Podcast: David Esslemont on the history of the Gregynog and Solmentes Presses

Gregynog Hall

Nigel Beale aka The Literary Tourist, came to visit and recorded our conversation in which he asked me about the history of the Gregynog Press, my time there as the Controller (artistic and managing director, and printer) of Gwasg Gregynog from 1985–97, and the evolution of Solmentes Press. Listen to the podcast at The Biblio File (link below).

Waxing lyrical about the the press's setting amidst the rolling hills of Montgomeryshire, I talk about its founders, the wealthy Davies sisters, some of the key players such as Blair Hughes-Stanton (coincidentally one of my tutors at the Central School of Art), and some of the outstanding books produced there up to 1945, when the press closed.

Encouraged by John Ryder and Ian Mortimer, among others, I joined the press from Newcastle upon Tyne where I had been printing and publishing since 1978. It was a significant move, I learnt to speak Welsh, and delighted in the literary and artistic traditions of Wales. Over the course of 12 years I was able to re-open the bindery, re-install hot metal typesetting and Heidelberg cylinder presses, and grow the operation substantially. I enjoyed the opportunity of working with some of Wales' leading literary figures and commissioned many wood engravers to illustrate a wide range of subjects. My favorite book of those I designed and printed was Wrenching Times: Poems from Drum-Taps by Walt Whitman. It was illustrated by Gaylord Schanilec an engraver I met on my first visit to New York in 1990.

Leaving Gregynog was a painful affair. For example, at one point I was ridiculed (by a political scientist nonetheless) for embracing a vision for the future of the press – an account of my time there has yet to be published. Nevertheless, I began to make books again and achieved a noticeable success with The Wood Engravings of David Gentleman. This led to Inside the Book and the birth of the Solmentes Press; the seminal Ink on the Elbow (another collaboration with Schanilec), and my move to the United States. The conversation concludes with some enthusiastic talk about food – I had just published Chili: a recipe – and was wondering what to publish next, would it be curry or pizza? [Recorded in December 2013]

Many thanks to Nigel Beale for hosting this conversation on his Biblio File podcast.

Englishman makes pizza from scratch and sells recipe for $$$$

It all began with a dream of establishing a self-sufficient “Pizza Farm” business. 

Decorah, IA – Artist David Esslemont dreamt of establishing a “Pizza Farm”. He grew wheat and tomatoes and built a clay oven – but it just wasn’t feasible. However, he had another idea: a limited edition hand-printed book.

Pizza from Scratch, a visual narrative in woodcuts and linocuts, tells the story of how he literally grew a pizza on his farm in Iowa. With orders from distinguished institutions such as the Library of Congress and the British Library the book promises to be quite a success, and with copies selling for up to $4,800, it will help pay the heating bills this winter.

Weeds, fire, cultivating, seeds, seedlings, broadcasting, harrowing, harvesting, threshing and construction details are all depicted together with a diagram proving Pythagoras's theorem (used to make a right angle when laying out the foundation for the walls).

Esslemont grows the oven from scratch. Cement block walls support a reinforced concrete plinth and a layer of firebricks. He then makes adobe bricks with clay dug from his farm, and forms the oven around a mound of sand. After adding a layer of insulation, more clay bricks, a chimney, and a roof, it's ready to fire up.

As the oven takes shape, the artist appears in a number of self-portraits that reveal his growing obsession with the project. The book concludes with instructions for making the dough, cheese, and tomato sauce and cooking the pizza.

Finally, there is an extraordinary multi-color print of a pepperoni pizza.

Pizza from Scratch is published by Solmentes Press in a limited edition of 40 copies, 10.5 x 15 inches, landscape, 68pp. Thirty-six images together with a separate plan, printed from the original blocks. Five deluxe copies bound in white alum-tawed goatskin – $4,800, and thirty-five copies in cloth-covered boards – $2,400.

Full details and images on solmentes.com
Read the story behind the book here

Bio
David Esslemont is an artist, designer, printmaker and bookbinder who makes books from scratch, most recently about food, and published under his Solmentes Press imprint. He was Artistic Director of the University of Wales Gregynog Press from 1985–97 and has won many book design awards including the Felice Feliciano International Award in 1991. Esslemont’s work can be found in both private and public collections worldwide. (His archive to 2005 is held at the University of Iowa.)

###

Contact David Esslemont 563 419 8882 david (at) solmentes.com
Solmentes Press, 1990 Fox Hollow Road, Decorah, IA 52101