1.2.12

HM Drop Box Drops



Having managed to stretch the HM decaversary over two years, and dispose of much of the flotsam that had accumulated during those years, the end of 2011 required some studio clean-up & -out. Despite our best efforts with the detritus, some remained; miscellaneous leaves from books, ephemera, etc etc. Meanwhile, the requests for "a sample of your printing, whatever bits you might have lying around" continue to trickle in. And so,


we put all the remaining flotsam in a pile & started sorting. There was enough to make up three uniform sets of what we have called the HM Drop Box. Each set, contained within a clamshell box made in the bindery of our friend Adele Shaak, contains five complete, bound publications; sample sheets from five projects; and an additional 14 pieces of printed ephemera. And finally, each box contains a piece unique, something of which we don't have even three copies. A detailed listing of the contents can be found on the HM site's Drop Box page.


To make some sense of it all, each set includes a detailed description of the contents written out by the publisher.  Although the boxes are uniform in their number of pieces and the source projects, the actual samples vary, and the introductory notes are specific to the samples in each box. These notes are written inside a bifolium sheet, on the outside of which has been printed a title page and press-numbered colophon.


The cloth-covered boxes measure 13.75 x 9.5 x 2 inches. In their randomness and lack of any curation, these boxes probably give as fair & accurate an overview of (or introduction to) HM's work with the handpress over the past decade. Therefore, we think these three collections might be of most interest to people or places who are not already following HM's progress, especially those who are interested in printing samples, handpress printing, or general press ephemera. The price is $925.