Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Postcard Project at Mountain House Press ~ Chillicothe


You many have noticed a very special postcard arrive in your mailbox recently. Sent to you has a membership benefit, and a way to keep in touch, this was printed on an iron handpress by Dard Hunter III, Johan Solberg, and Radha Pandey at the Mountain House Press, Chillicothe, Ohio.

The paper used was made ca. 1928-1933 by Dard Hunter himself. Lime Rock Mill was Dard Hunter's attempt at commercial high quality papermaking, and his first batch came out several months after the stock market crashed. Dard Hunter made enough paper at Lime Rock, Connecticut to be the source for the paper for his own books...and apparently our postcards! Darn! That's a lotta paper! (Source: dardhunter.com)

Enjoy this short story from Radha below!  



We arrived in Chillicothe for the 4th of July weekend all set to spend the weekend printing the FDH annual postcard at the Mountain House press with Dard Hunter III.

Dard gave us a tour of his grandfather’s beautiful home and grounds. We were absolutely in awe of the library, and the precious first editions of several hand printed books written by Dard Hunter. I hadn’t realized how many books had in face been written about papermaking in different parts of the world.

We spent the first day looking through galleys of set type and ornaments trying to decide what to use for the postcards. There were too many choices, and many familiar illustrations that we had seen in books about papermaking. We decided to print three postcards. One using a plate illustrating early watermarks, and the other two using found blocks and ornaments that were designed and hand cast by Dard Hunter II.

The paper we decided to use for the postcards was made at Lime Rock by Dard Hunter, and was generously donated by Dard Hunter III for this annual mailing.

Neither Dard nor us, had printed on the iron handpress before. It was a challenge trying to get the inking and impression right. The handpress had hanging on it, a hat given to Dard Hunter by Mahatma Gandhi, which kept us company through the night as we printed.














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