The Making of a Shakespeare Sonnet Broadside

The Making of a Shakespeare Sonnet Broadside

Shakespeare in Fine Press

Location
RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection
To commemorate Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary, the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in England announced a call to fine printers worldwide to reproduce all of his sonnets—154 in total. These broadsides will be added to the Bodleian’s permanent collection and featured in an exhibition there.
 
The Cary chose Sonnet 35 for its contribution. Curator Steve Galbraith provided the poetic interpretation of the piece, and Associate Curator Amelia Fontanel designed, typeset, and printed it. She chose a modernist treatment in terms of the typography and imagery that highlights the sonnet’s reference to an eclipse. This collection of photographs outlines the production steps that went into creating this broadside.

Image Gallery

Digital Sketch
Letterpress Paste-Up
Printing on the Handpress
Second Impression
Third Impression
Foil Stamping
circle printer's furniture.
Associate Curator, Amelia Fontanel, planes the Optima type of Sonnet 35 in the Kelmscott-Goudy Albion handpress.
Sonnet 35 in the bed of the Kelmscott-Goudy Press.
First impression on the left, second impression of the black "field of space" on the right. This second impression was made on the Vandercook SP-20.
40 pica wooden printer's furniture makes up the printing plate for the second impression.
The result of the first and second impressions for the Sonnet 35 broadside.
The third impression on the Vandercook SP-20.
The third impression with silver ring.
The fourth impression of the sun was made on a Kwik Print Foil Stamper with a metal die.
The metal die for the sun is locked in the heating element of the foil stamper.
The used gold foil ribbon and its resulting broadside.