Fine press

Fine press printing and publishing comprises historical and contemporary printers and publishers publishing books and other printed matter of exceptional intrinsic quality and artistic taste, including both commercial and private presses.

History of fine press

As part of the Arts and Crafts movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Englishman William Morris wanted to counter the industrialization of culture through a revival of craft in printing, printmaking, and publishing. One of the books they published was the Kelmscott Chaucer. Soon, fine presses began to spring up in the United States as well; the most prominent was the Roycroft Press. Los Angeles was a center of the fine press movement, particularly centered on the Ward Ritchie press. In the 1920s, San Francisco became known for the elegant publications of John Henry Nash, and likewise became a fine press center on the west coast.

List of fine presses

United States

Alderbrink Press (1897 - 1928?)
Blue Sky Press (1899–1906)
Clerk's Press (1908–1919)
Cranbrook Press (1900–1902)
Elston Press (1900–1904)
Marion Press (1896–1931)
The Mosher Press (1891 - 1923+) Set up by Thomas Bird Mosher in 1891, in Portland, Maine
Philosopher Press (1896–1904)
Roycroft Press (1896 - 1915+) Set up by Elbert Hubbard in 1895
Trovillion Press at the Sign of the Silver Horse Set up by Hal W. Trovillion in Herrin, Illinois in 1908
Hammer Creek Press (1950–1962)
Thornwillow Press, New York (1985–Present)

California presses

Colt Press, San Francisco
Grabhorn Press, San Francisco
John Henry Nash, San Francisco
Plantin Press, Los Angeles. Founded by Saul and Lillian Marks, in 1931
Saunders Studio Press, Claremont. Founded by Lynne and Ruth Thompson Saunders in 1927
Ward Ritchie Press
Arion Press, San Francisco

United Kingdom

Ashendene Press (1894–1935)
Daniel Press Oxford (1874–1903)
Doves Press (1900–1916) - Founded by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker
Eragny Press (1894–1914)
Essex House Press (1898–1910)
Fine Press Poetry (founded 2013) by Andrew J Moorhouse
Folio Society - Founded by Charles Ede in 1947
Golden Cockerel Press - Founded by Harold Midgley Taylor in 1920
Gregynog Press (1922-) - Founded by Gwendoline and Margaret Davies
Kelmscott Press (1891–1898) - Set up by William Morris in 1891
Kynoch Press (1876–1981) - English-based fine press in Witton, Birmingham, founded as a company press for Kynoch, a British ammunition manufacturer.
Nonesuch Press - Founded in 1922 by Francis and Vera Meynell, and David Garnett
The Press of Gaetano Polidori
Rampant Lions Press (1924–2008)
Strawberry Hill Press of Horace Walpole
Vale Press (1896–1905)