DISTINGUISHED TYPOGRAPHY - Bloomsbury Auctions

De Zilverdistel
From its founding in 1910, it took six years and eleven
publications before the Dutch equivalent of the rarified
craft pioneered by William Morris in England, and so
successfully plied by those he inspired, reached maturity
and fully deserved the private press book label. Its three
founders were unfamiliar with printing on a handpress nor
did they aspire to operate one. Hence they entrusted their
poetry to Joh. Enschedé & Zonen, the venerable Haarlem
firm noted for its collection of historic typefaces. It is not
surprising, therefore, that the first four Zilverdistels, printed
on the company’s handpress, featured the fifteenth century
founts of Fleischmann and Hendrik Claesz.
A breath of fresh air arrived in 1913, when two of the founders
lost interest and allowed their colleague, P.N. van Eyck, to
carry on with the knowledgeable participation of a bibliophile
who worked for the postal services’ legal department. Jean-
François van Royen convinced van Eyck to try another
printer for the fifth Zilverdistel, Charles Baudelaire’s Les
Fleurs du Mal, one prepared to invest in S.H. de Roos’ brand
new typeface ‘Médieval Hollandais’. Van Royen showed his
colleague examples of Kelmscott and Doves publications
and that poet’s own next book successfully employed the
newly designed typeface. One month before war broke out
van Royen and his wife travelled to England where they were
entertained by St.John Hornby, Esther & Lucien Pissarro
and T.J.Cobden-Sanderson. The Dutchman gave his hosts
copies of the two latest Zilverdistels in which he had had a
hand, Lanseloet van Denemerken and Verlaine’s Romances
sans Paroles, both of which drew favourable comments.
Van Royen came back full of resolve and commissioned two
dedicated typefaces, the ‘Zilvertype’ from S.H. de Roos, in
principle to be used for modern texts, and the ‘Disteltype’
from Lucien Pissarro, suitable for older texts. All this
cost money so he lectured about the art of the book, took
subscriptions and recruited his friends. A club of fifty became
the mainstay of what was now his press. A financing device
was issuing a limited number of copies on vellum with or
without hand-flourishes, that would command a multiple of
the price of regular copies.
Lot 18
18. la n s e l o e t va n De n e M e r k e n, 48pp., o n e o F 100 C o p i e s
on Batchelor handmade paper, printed in red and black in
type by Peter Schoeffer von Gernsheim and printed by Joh.
Enschedé & Zonen, initial in red by van Royen, original
limp vellum with printer’s device in gilt on upper cover,
spine titled in gilt, uncut, modern cloth slip-case, 8vo, 190
x 130mm., The Hague, De Zilverdistel, 1913.
£250 – £350
* * * An incunable of Dutch theatrical literature going back to
the fourteenth century.
The first use of the Zilverdistel printer’s device designed by
the architect K.P.C. de Bazel.
19. Verlaine (Paul) ro M a n C e s s a n s pa r o l e s, 48pp.,
number 77 of 130 copies on Japan vellum, printed in red,
blue and black in type by Peter Schoeffer von Gernsheim
and printed by Joh.Enschedé & Zonen, modern limp vellum
with printer’s device in gilt on upper cover, spine titled in
gilt, 8vo, 190 x 140mm., The Hague, De Zilverdistel, 1913.
£250 – £350
Lot 20
20. Hardenberg (Friedrich von), “Novalis”. Die
ge D i C h t e..., one of 200 copies on Batchelor handmade
paper, printed in red, blue and black in type by Peter
Schoeffer von Gernsheim and printed by Joh.Enschedé &
Zonen, bookplates of U[bbo] P[roost] and F.M.Cohen, the
second wood-engraved, original limp vellum with printer’s
device in gilt on upper cover, spine titled in gilt, uncut, 8vo,
190 x 140mm., The Hague, De Zilverdistel, 1915.
£150 – £200
The library of Jan van der Marck
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