Gregynog Press

Gregynog Press
Substantial collection of letters to William McCance, controller of the press, 1930-3
including numerous draft responses by McCance, and various associated documents, approx. 200 separate items in total, typed and manuscript, most on stationery with the author's corporate or personal letterhead, pencilled catalogue numbers to upper left corners throughout, a few items annotated or with sketched letterforms by McCance. Authors include:Blair Hughes-Stanton (1902-1981), artist and wood-engraver at the Gregynog Press. 10 letters of which 1 to 'Naomi' (probably Naomi Mitchison) the rest to McCance, on various events and disagreements at the press, including remarks about other figures in the private press movement, the letters long and slightly rambling, with little punctuation, most written in pencil, some retaining original stamped envelope, e.g. 'They [the Gregynog board of directors] are furious with you … for having consulted experts or anyone without their consent in other words they dislike being shown up as fools … They all rave about [Eric Gill's] Four Gospels down here. I think its a pigs breakfast … DJ [Dora Jones?] again said at the board meeting how he objected to the Kessler Hamlet fussy he called it “but of course thats just a personall [sic] opinion”. I dont think hes taken the trouble to study it for more than 10 minutes no they all think they are safe with Gill and the Gospels and think it so cheap at 8 guineas';Stanley Morison (1888-1967), typographer. 28 letters, all on Monotype Corporation stationery, in a warm and jocular tone, filled with polysyllabic humour and containing discussion of business matters (e.g. preparation of typefaces for the press, Gill italic and Perpetua italic, etc.) interspersed with constructive criticism and advice regarding Gregynog presswork, lyrical disquisitions on the craft and philosophy of printing, ironic anti-Welsh sentiment ('I think that you and I, as non-Cambrians, may learn something from the incident'), etc. Together with 4 draft letters from McCance to Morison;R. A. Maynard, McCance's predecessor as controller of the Gregynog Press. 5 letters, arranging the hand-over, to McCance, praising McCance's productions at Gregynog (on Esope, ‘Did you, I wonder, manage the engravings without damping on that very soft sized paper. A technical detail this, but I’m interested'; and Comus, ‘a stunning book’), commiserating over disagreements with the directors of the press (‘I was sorry to hear of the contretemps over your Esope colophon. Twas inevitable! You'll get tons of it, as I did … Don't make it a life or death business - as I did. A grave mistake - the Welsh only understand talkie talkie: work doesn't count'; ‘What you say of Wales and Welsh would be illuminating did I not know the blighters so well. In my day the chief sauce [sic] of unpleasant and unexpected surprises was T. W. H. but I can see that the good work is being carried on by others. I can give you no comfort: you will never eliminate the background to your labours’);Major W. J. Burdon Evans, director of the Gregynog Press. 48 letters, concerning McCance's appointment, contractual, administrative and financial matters, press matters including leather samples and the disappointment of Miss Davies with McCance's designs for an edition of Benedicite by Ralph Vaughan Williams, McCance's resignation, etc., the letters ranging from business-like to peremptory in tone. Together with 13 draft letters from McCance to Evans, concerning the day-to-day running of the press, with strong disagreements evident: 'We have again gone into the matter [of changing from quarterly to monthly salaries] and perhaps it is that we are not so much off the rails as running on different lines, you on the Cambrian Railway we on the L.M.S.'; ‘My position, ill defined at the beginning, has become more more one of responsibility without adequate control' (issues raised including unauthorised access to the press's office safe); ‘I submit, however, that the design was both original and distinctive, being well proportioned and effectively adapted to its purpose’ (a response to criticism of his design for Benedicite); ‘I do not wish to belittle the function of the bindery but I should like to point out that its importance is secondary to the actual printing …' (a lengthy draft letter recapitulating disagreements with the Directors esp. focus of attention and resources on the bindery); a discussion of Blair Hughes Stanton's work on an edition of White's Selborne; the appointment of McCance's successor.Dora E. Yates (1879-1974), Romani scholar. 11 letters, concerning the production and design of Gregynog's XXI Welsh Gypsy Folk Tales (1931), Yates contributing the foreword;Thomas Jones (1870-1955), director of the Gregynog Press. 11 letters on various press matters (e.g. 'I was looking at the Esope, Singing Caravan and Erewhon leathers yesterday. Together they have an accumulatively depressing appearance to me');Dora Herbert Jones (1890-1974), secretary of the Gregynog Press, 3 letters, on press matters including a request for a selection of engravings by Agnes Miller Parker for exhibition during a visit to Gregynog by George Bernard Shaw.And from others including Gwendoline E. Davies (1882-1951), co-founder director of the Gregynog Press, 4 letters; J. Barcham Green, paper maker, 2 letters (with a draft letter from McCance to Barcham); Francis Meynell, director of the Nonesuch Press, 4 letters (with a draft letter from McCance to Meynell), J. G. Wilson (1876-1963) managing director of booksellers John & Edward Bumpus Ltd, 6 letters; Hugh Blaker (1873-1936), artist and connoisseur; and more.The associated documents including: 2 carbon copies of a report on the work of press by W. J. Burdon Evans (each 6 ff., foolscap leaves, rectos only, headings comprising ‘Work in hand’, ‘Work in Prospect’, ‘Policy’, ‘Welsh Books’, ‘Costings’ and ‘Generally’, remarks include ‘Eric Gill is not satisfied but the Monotype people hope to supply in November’);  4 copies of William McCance's employment contract (one typed, the rest carbons); a manuscript booklet largely in an unidentified hand, 11 pp., include draft schedule for work at the press, ‘Plan of development through apprentices’, ‘Structural alterations’ including a workshop diagram notes on typefaces in stock, etc., approx. 10 ff. further notes.
Mrs Margaret McCance, second wife of William McCance.
A voluminous archive shedding light on the personalities and day-to-day functioning of one of the great private presses during its interwar heyday, providing an in-depth and often richly comic insight into the harried tenure of William McCance as controller of the press, with informative business correspondence interspersed with philosophical reflections, indiscreet gossip, and splenetic rants from several correspondents, some of whom might on present evidence be justifiably described as unsung belle-lettrists. William McCance (1890-1974) was a Scottish artist notable as an exponent of the Vorticist style developed by Wyndham Lewis. Succeeding R. A. Maynard in 1930 and remaining in post until 1933, assisted by his his wife, the wood-engraver Agnes Miller Parker, he appears to have quickly found himself out of sympathy with the directors of the press and resentful of their excessive interference. See further: Kathleen Ladizesky, ‘Aspects of the Gregynog Press 1930-33', The Private Library, Third Series, 7:2, 1984.