World's most expensive book sells for £7.3m at Sotheby's

On Tuesday a new record was set for the most expensive printed book in the world!

A rare first edition of The Birds of America was sold at Sotheby's in London yesterday on 7th December for £7.3m, making it the most expensive printed book in the world.

London dealer Michael Tollemache, whose winning bid came in more than £1.3m above the £6m estimate, described the work as "priceless".

...and here's a picture of this MASSIVE book:

The four-volume work, produced in the 1830's is  from the private collection of Frederick, 2nd Lord Hesketh, comprises 435 hand-coloured etched plates with line-engraving and aquatint.

The engravings are by Robert Havell and Son, of London, and WH Lizars, of Edinburgh, from the original life-size watercolours by John James Audubon.

All prints were reproduced in double-elephant folio (what a shame we don't have names for paper sizes like that anymore!) which represents a sheet size of around 972mm x 654mm, from the copper plate etchings and then hand coloured.

The Birds of America took Audubon 12 years to complete and his technique involved shooting the birds (with a gun, not a camera - but do remember this was the 1830's) before mounting them with wire in order to pose them for his sketches!

Now I know people think that Fenner Paper have been around for years but even we haven't been going that long! ...so, sadly we didn't supply the paper for this particular job!  However the paper used is all watermarked  J. Whatman Turkey Mill and was actually produced at a paper mill in Maidstone in Kent which is very close to where we are based.

The "Turkey Mill" was established as a paper making mill back in 1740 by James Whatman - hand making paper and over the next hundred years became one of the most highly regarded mills in the country. By 1859 the Turkey Mill and Whatman watermarks (trade names essentially) were sold to a neighbouring mill - Springfield Mill which believe it or not, is still running! - producing a range of specialist scientific filter and medical papers and is the last remaining paper mill in the Maidstone area. In 1976 the original Turkey Mill was bought by the dreaded Wiggins Teape (now ArjoWiggins) and closed down, bringing to an end over 280 years of continuous paper making at Turkey Mill.

Here endeth the history lesson!
http://www.sothebys.com/
http://www.whatman.com/
http://www.turkeymill.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.12.2010

Sustain/ability

Sustainability is an event held just a few days ago in Treviso in Italy (2-4th Dec).  It comprised an exhibition, talks and workshops, all focusing on the subject of sustainable design. Although I'm sure it was a lot warmer in Treviso than it's been in the UK over the last few days, I'm not writing this because I actually went (sadly!) but because the paper used for the event was sponsored by Favini and used SHIRO, Alga Carta for the below posters, which I think are well worth a look:

The design of the posters was by Design Heads Collective. Photography is by Silvia Boschiero and print by Graficart.

There's an interesting article (with an english translation)  on the site about the workshop they ran on sustainable type: http://sustain-ability.it/archives/1141

http://www.favini.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.12.2010

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration

Amelia Gregory is founder, writer, publisher, photographer, reviewer, designer, art director  (...in fact just about every job you can think of) of what has become known as an independent publishing  phenomenon - Amelia's Magazine.

Fenner Paper supplied most of the paper used over the five years and ten issues that were produced and it was always a pleasure working on each issue as the publications had the highest production values - one even using Swarovski crystals mounted onto the cover!  Amelia published her last printed magazine publication about two years ago in favour of concentrating her efforts on the website, blogging and twitter with great success! ...the Amelia's Magazine website has again been voted into the top 25 Arts and Culture blogs by Creative Tourist.

The good news is (for us and for you) that paper hasn't been completely shelved! Last year she published Amelias Anthology of Illustration Magazine which is a 264pp compendium of illustration, interviews, articles and reviews - in fact Amelia has billed it as "a book to inspire creativity in the climate of change". It is a lovely book and still available on her website. I should also mention that it's printed on our Marazion Ultra 135gsm.

And now she is in the throes of producing Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration - or ACOFI as she has affectionately termed it on twitter.

It has been 'on press' all last week down at the printers, Principal Colour in Paddock Wood in Kent and here are some pics of the proof sheets that Amelia took with her iphone as she went through them.

It's printed on a special making (which is an 'ex-mill' item only) of an uncoated paper with a good bulk, high opacity and whiteness, called Tallistag Hi-Bulk in 100gsm and as you can see from the pics above, the colours have worked really well, very vibrant.

The proofs do look really great and you can order your copy of ACOFI on line - for Christmas delivery and make all her hard work worth it!
http://www.ameliasmagazine.com/
http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.12.2010

Snow nearly stops play!

Well I can't say that snow has exactly been welcomed here at Fenner Paper! One of the problems with paper is that it's very heavy and needs moving around and I guess many people reading this blog may think about samples, dummies and the nice examples of finished work but the paper still has to be moved around in a fairly industrial way, or not, as you can see from some of our snowbound vehicles...

As well as delivering paper, we have to take in deliveries, which can also be problematical in the snow:  

Here's Tom clearing the snow, so we can unload the truck with a forklift. The weather shouldn't be too much of a surprise to these pallets of paper as this truckload has come from Sweden where it's currently -11°C and snowing every day!

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.12.2010

Jobs from the past - Number 14

Followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by, so here's the last one for 2010...

NatWest Media Centre - media launch book - Future Systems

This job dates back to 1999. The design company was Cartlidge Levene. Art direction was by Ian Cartlidge and Adam Levene. This publication was produced for the media launch of the fantastically futuristic NatWest media centre at the MCC's Lords Cricket Ground in St John's Wood.

This is a remarkable job because it is perfectly deconstructed in the same way that the building itself was conceived and built. It was not built as a building but constructed at a boatyard, out of aluminium!

This was the 'book' that I spoke about at the ISTD stammtisch, back in October. http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2010/10/istd-stammtisch-13th-october-2010.html

Future Systems was the architectural practice of the late Jan Kaplicky and Amanda Levete. The partnership designed some amazing and truly iconic buildings including Selfridges in Birmingham and the Enzo Ferrari Museum amongst many others.

The design of this publication could almost be described as a "de-constructed" book, as it has no binding! It is formed by the production of a 'case' which would normally form the cover of a hardback book. But this works more as a folder, holding in the two seperate and entirely unbound text sections. The size of the cover is 215x260mm portrait, the two text sections are 210x250mm.

Images are reproduced on gloss coated paper - our Millennium Real Art 115gsm 16pp self cover unbound - see below...

The text and some images reproduced in mono, printed on uncoated text paper, Formation Superfine 90gsm, also 16pp self cover, unbound but printed in one colour only - see below..

The hard case 'folder' was produced using Millennium Real Art with gloss lamination (inside and out) mounted onto 3 pieces of 2000micron greyboard with a 10mm gutter to form the 'hinge' and then punched out. I mentioned earlier that this publication somehow perfectly interprets the construction of the building and this is both in the visual sense and the literal sense ...the angle of the slit on the cover is exactly the same as the glazing on the front of the building which designed so the sun never reflects in the player's eyes - what a great piece of detailing!

The stunning photography is by Richard Davies. Print and superb finishing with amazing attention to detail was by Principal Colour.

http://www.future-systems.com/
http://www.cartlidgelevene.co.uk/
http://www.richarddavies.com/
http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.12.2010

Forever Manchester

I just saw an article that there's to be an exhibition and sale of limited edition posters from prolific illustrator Si Scott at the Tarif Street Gallery in Manchester with proceeds going to local charitable community foundation Forever Manchester. The exhibition runs for two weeks and comprises series of 11 posters. Each uses as its focus lyrics from Manchester bands including The Buzzcocks, Elbow, Oasis, The Stone Roses, The Fall, The Doves and Joy Division. The unique typeface used in the pieces has been specially created by Si for the posters. Prices start from £100 with proceeds going to Forever Manchester.

Now I first met Si Scott way back in 2002 when he and Zoë Bather had just graduated. I didn't know them and they didn't know each other but they had individually won a D&AD competition to design the next issue of D&AD Ampersand magazine. The publication was then designed at Frost in London and Si and Zoë were literally thrown together for two weeks working with senior designer John Dowling at the Frost studio.

Well obviously things have moved a long way on from then! Si Scott is now ranked as one of the top 200 illustrators in the world. Zoë Bather worked at Frost in London with Matt Willey, they then established Studio8 which celebrates it's 5th anniversary this very week! ...so congratulations all round!

http://www.forevermanchester.com/

http://www.siscottstudio.com/
http://www.dowlingduncan.com/
http://www.studio8design.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.11.2010

Crispin Finn 2011 planner

The lovely Anna Fidalgo from Crispin Finn has sent me this excellent 2011 year planner. It is a full 700x1000mm (B1) size and is hand printed, silkscreened in two colours.

Now rather sadly this year's planner is not produced on our Colorset 100% Recycled (as it was last year) because it came out more expensive than another recycled paper but she's promised to get back to us about the 2012 year planner and give us a crack at it again! I do hope so, as it's a really lovely job. So even though it's not on our paper, here it is:

...there's lots of other lovely stuff on the site, perfect for Christmas presents.

http://www.crispinfinn.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.11.2010