Heritage Press Dune

Way too expensive for me, but first copy I've seen of the Heritage Press Dune. Complete with what I assume is genuine (not genuine) shrinkwrap:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175362979470?hash=item28d472b68e:g:5CIAAOSwET1i3sSn&amp...

I did not know there was such a thing as HP Dune.

>2 booksforreading: https://georgemacyimagery.wordpress.com/heritage-press-exclusives/#:~:text=Dune:,there!)

2> Yep, it was done by Easton Press under the Heritage Press banner after their purchasing of the publisher. Definitely one of the more interesting releases. First time I've even seen it for sale!

>4 WildcatJF:
Was it printed letterpress even though HP was already owned by Easton Press? Do you know know?

5> Afraid not. I've never seen one in person or read much about it. Given it's the Easton Press, I suspect not.

>5 booksforreading:

I don't recall any HP title being letterpress. There may have been a few. Some of the HP's were as fancy as LECs I guess but I don't collect HP very often, at least I won't until I get all the LECs I'm interested in.

>7 MobyRichard:
Actually all of Heritage Press books I own - and I do not have that many, but do have a few - seem to be printed letterpress.
I could be horribly wrong, of course.

>7 MobyRichard: I think all the early HPs were letterpress.

>9 kdweber:

Interesting...but still large print runs?

>10 MobyRichard: Once upon a time everything was printed letterpress - not just nice books, but also cheap pulp and even newspapers. Offset started replacing letterpress only in the 50s, and the process took some time. For example, everything printed by the Folio Society was letterpress until well into the 70s.

One thing to keep in mind is that letterpress is an umbrella for many different techniques and technologies with varying degrees of automation and output volumes ranging from individual letter casting and setting type by hand to automated linotype and monotype machines (most LECs) to rotary presses churning out newspaper sheets at high speed and volumes.

Btw, high volumes of letterpress printing were possible even in the 19th century. In the 1840s Richard Hoe's steam-powdered cylinder press printed 8,000 sheets and hour, soon improved to churn out 18,000 letterpress sheets an hour printed both sides. Hoe's letterpress machines were used for printing newspapers.

>11 elladan0891:
When I was a kid in the 1970s, my school took us on a field trip to the Washington Post, where we saw hot lead Linotype typesetting for the newspaper. I still remember it vividly.

>11 elladan0891:

Yeah, I know. But I was wondering if HP specifically ever used letterpress. The few HP books I have all seem to be offset. I kind of assumed that was the main difference between LEC and HP, that along with paper quality and the bindings.

>13 MobyRichard: There are some incredible letterpress HPs

https://www.librarything.com/topic/241067

>13 MobyRichard: The few HP books I have all seem to be offset. I kind of assumed that was the main difference between LEC and HP...

Probably starting at some point. But all earlier HPs were letterpress simply because offset hadn't taken over the world yet. Not sure when HP started using offset. I'd assume that everything up to the 50s is letterpress. Although I guess letterpress could possibly stretch into the 60s or even 70s. I have just a couple of early letterpress HPs and have none from the later decades, perhaps other folks here with larger HP collections could chime in.

>15 elladan0891: Well surely Offset Printing has been around much longer than the 1950's. I seem to remember reading that it was used in the late 1800's for printing on tin, but also for other purposes in the early 1900's. I would think that a number of books printed on clay paper would have been printed better on an offset printing press. I would think that letterpress might damage clay paper.

>16 Bernarrd: Offset lithography process was indeed known in the 19th century, but it was mainly used for special purposes, not for printing books. First it was used for transferring images to metal, just as what you read. Later on, particularly at the start of the 20th century, the modern offset process was developed when an image is transferred onto paper from rubber cylinders, but it was mainly used for printing pictures/illustrations, be it books, calendars, cards, ads, etc. Offset didn't start replacing letterpress methods for printing text until about the 50s. I guess the process of making metal plates of text to transfer images of the plates to a rubber cylinder to further offset them onto paper wasn't much easier and cheaper than machine-set letterpress techniques until then.

When you say 'clay paper' I take it you talk about coated paper? Yes, it's particularly good for offset printing/lithography. Yes, it was used for printing illustrations. But try going to a bookshop or a library that carries a lot of old books from the 19th or early 20th century and see how many you will find with all of the text printed offset on coated paper.

>17 elladan0891: Probably more books were printed on clay or coated paper than you would think. Many books that had numerous in-text illustrations were printed on clay paper. Many technical books were printed on clay paper for the same reason. Although books that had in-text illustrations were printed on regular paper, books that needed to have a better grade of image were often printed on clay paper. Say a book on chemistry, or violins, or fancy fish, and lot of different technical topics. Probably very few works of fiction were printed on clay paper, but a few of them were also. Such as John Uri Lloyd's "Etidorhpa" in the early editions. But books printed on clay paper were heavy, and so harder to hold while the book was read. Also the weight of the paper would pull the pages from the binding. And if you get clay paper wet it is easily ruined, it becomes a block of concrete like material. At a certain point they stared printing National Geographic Magazines on clay paper, to get better images in the magazines.