A long time ago, as a young fine art student, I would never have believed that one day I’d be collaborating with Allen Jones – Richard Tong
Allen and Rich have been working on the bindings for our forthcoming editions of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
During his long and highly distinguished career, Allen had never before combined his imagery with a work of fiction, so when we approached him about this project, he was intrigued. The book’s standing as one of the high points of twentieth-century English literature makes it an appropriate subject for an artist of his stature.
He has a lifetime’s experience of drawing, painting, sculpture and print-making. He has taken layering techniques from his screen- and litho-prints and applied them to digital print-making. This too is a first for him, and he has been working with Leslie Gerry to make his vision ready for printing.
There is a point in the book where two of the main characters leave civilisation as they know it. It is marked by a twelve-page section consisting solely of die-cut, colour images that take the viewer on the journey with them.
The bindings have occupied Allen and Rich for a considerable amount of time. Rich says of them “Allen has provided a huge number of paintings and drawings for this edition, many of them very bright and colourful, and it has been my job to try and create bindings that work in harmony. This will be a very cool book and one that is extremely rich with artwork.”
The book will be available in two editions. Both will have 302 pages and a page size of 230 x 170 mm. Allen has made twenty-nine full colour illustrations and twenty-four black-and-white drawings. He will be signing all copies. The text and some illustrations will be printed letterpress in two colours throughout by Phil Abel and Robert Hetherington at Hand & Eye Editions. The bulk of Allen’s images will be printed offset by Empress Litho.
The first-tier edition
The first-tier edition will be half-bradel bound in dark orange and yellow goatskin foil-blocked in five passes with Allen’s artwork. The spine will be foil blocked in blue and yellow. It will be housed in a solander box that is full-bound in navy blue goatskin that is foil-blocked on the front board with a separate, two-colour design. The box will also contain a portfolio of five signed prints. The book will be printed on Liber Charta 170 gsm paper and its price will be £2250.
The second-tier edition
The second-tier edition will be full-bound in white goatskin. Allen’s design will be printed with UV-dried ink and foil-blocked across the front, spine and back. It will be housed in a solander box that is covered in two-tone red Dubletta cloth and lined with white suedel. The spine of the box will be foil blocked in black and white. The book will be printed on Mohawk Superfine 148 gsm paper and its price will be £530.
For future release
We are also working on a large-format Artist’s Edition which will be printed in two colours from metal type. Gangolf Ulbricht is making us a special hand-made paper which will have an AJ watermark on every page. The book block will have deckle edges on all three sides.
This is a major undertaking and we will be releasing further details in due course.
Introducing our new rights system
| We are introducing a rights system for Brave New World and all our subsequent books. We are contacting everyone who has bought at least one of: the Lettered Edition of Benjamin Button; the Roman Edition of Frozen Hell; the Portfolio Edition of Words of Fire; or the Artist’s Edition of Death and Honey. They are being invited to register for the right to our future top-tier books, including Brave New World.Rights to second-tier editions are being offered to buyers of: the Numbered Edition of Benjamin Button; the Numbered Edition of Frozen Hell; the Roman Edition of Words of Fire; or the Numbered Edition of Death and Honey.If you qualify, you’ll receive a separate email with a link to a password-protected registration page. Registration closes at midnight UK time on 18 May and anyone buying Benjamin Button or Frozen Hell before then will be eligible for rights and will be sent the link. Rights to the top- and second-tier editions will be separate.From now on, all our books, including Brave New World, will be produced in editions large enough to fulfil all rights and for there to be additional copies for general pre-sale on the usual first-come, first-served basis. We’ll be sending another newsletter after registration closes telling you the limitations of the two editions of Brave New World. The public pre-sale for non-rights holders will open at 5pm on Saturday 31 May.Rights will belong to the individual, not to the book, so if a rights-holder sells a book, the rights do not go with it. Rights are intended for dedicated collectors of our work, and should a rights-holder decide not to take a particular title, their rights would come to an end and be offered to someone else. |
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