Rampant Lions Press
| Industry | Letterpress printing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1924 |
| Founder | Will Carter |
| Defunct | 2008 |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, England |
Key people | Sebastian Carter |
TheRampant Lions Presswas a fineletterpressprintingfirm in Britain, operating from 1924 to 2008. The firm was founded by Will Carter (24 September 1912 – 17 March 2001), publishing its first book in 1936, and was continued by his son, Sebastian Carter (b. 1941), from 1966.[1][2][3]
History
[edit]Rampant Lions started life as aprivate pressin 1924, when Will Carter was still a schoolboy. After the war, his interest in printing was such that he decided to try to establish the Press on a commercial footing, and did so inCambridgein 1949. From that date until the formal closure of the Press at the end of 2008, Rampant Lions has been among the most highly regarded letterpress printing-offices in Britain. The skills of Will and Sebastian Carter in design and press-work have been recognized by publishers, who commissioned work from them. Their skills have also been recognized by collectors, who have sought out their publications since the 1950s. Sebastian Carter also has an international reputation as a writer on type and typography and is the author of several books,[4]including in 2013The Rampant Lion Press: A Narrative Catalogue.[5]
Besides printing, Carter also designed two fonts forMonotype,Klang and Octavian, the latter withDavid Kindersley.[6][7]He also designed signage and a font forDartmouth College,where he was artist-in-residence for a time.[8]
Legacy
[edit]At theFitzwilliam Museumfrom 18 March to 18 May 2014, the exhibitionThe Rampant Lions Press: A Letterpress Odysseytook place, featuring books published since 1982, when the press had been the subject of a retrospective exhibition there,[9]celebratingA Printing Workshop Through Five Decades.[10]The retrospectiveWill Carter: Man of Letterstook place at the Lettering Arts Centre,Snape Maltings,Suffolk,in April 2022,[11]and subsequently at the Robert Cripps Gallery,Magdalene College, Cambridge.[12]
Further reading
[edit]- Carter, Sebastian, et al.The Rampant Lions Press: a printing workshop through five decades(Rampant Lions, Cambridge, 1982).ISBN0-902591-12-6(paperback),ISBN0-902591-11-8(cased).
- Carter, Sebastian, "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: Closing the Rampant Lions Press Workshop", inParenthesis;19 (Autumn 2010), pp. 9–11.
- Carter, Sebastian,The Rampant Lion Press: A Narrative Catalogue,New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2013 (208 pages).ISBN9781584563211
References
[edit]- ^Carter, Will (Summer 1954)."Some observations of a small printer"(PDF).Monotype Recorder.40(2): 9–24.Retrieved19 September2015.
- ^Rogers, Timothy (22 March 2001)."Will Carter obituary".The Guardian.Retrieved17 September2015.
- ^History,The Rampant Lions Press.
- ^"Sebastian Carter".Open Library.Internet Archive.
- ^Randle, John."Men of Letters – Bibliography".TLS.Retrieved29 August2020.
- ^"Klang MT".MyFonts.Retrieved17 September2015.
- ^"Octavian MT".MyFonts.Retrieved17 September2015.
- ^"Exhibition: Will Carter and the Dartmouth Typeface – The story of the development of the letterforms that became known as the Dartmouth typeface".Dartmouth College, 21 March 2018.
- ^"The Rampant Lions Press: A Letterpress Odyssey".Cambridge: The Fitzwilliam Museum. 2014.
- ^"Will Carter Retrospective".The Lettering Arts Trust.Retrieved29 August2020.
- ^Bignell, Eric (29 April 2022)."The Lettering Arts Trust presents – Will Carter: Man of Letters".Stone Specialist.Retrieved26 December2023.
- ^"Will Carter - Man of Letters".The Lettering Arts Trust.Retrieved26 December2023.
External links
[edit]- Rampant Lions Press website(including a catalogue of books in print)
- Nicolas Barket,Obituary of Will Carter[dead link],The Independent,20 March 2001.
- "Will Carter",Luc Devroye.
- Finding Aid for the Rampant Lions Press Collection 1961–2001,The Online Archive of California.
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