How Private Presses and Fine Printing Elevate Literary Classics

A s much as readers love physical books, there’s no denying that quality varies among volumes. Even today, some books in a bookstore will be glued into their covers while others are more elegantly sewn. Books are printed on cheap, thin paper or thicker pages with those uneven, deckle edges meant to look like hand-cut paper. While some people might buy books exclusively to access the words on their pages, others covet versions where the physical book itself has its own artistic merits.

Selby Kiffer, International Senior Specialist in Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts Department, notes that Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October initially couldn’t find a publisher. It was only after the Naval Institute Press published it in a small edition that it took off and became a phenomenal bestseller. “Now it’s a collectible rare book,” Kiffer says. Private-press books, by contrast, are intended to be collectible and rare from the start. “It’s principally different from other forms of book collecting, where, for whatever reason, a book becomes collectible and valuable.”

Edward Lucie Smith, Futura10 — Private-press books are notably diverse in design, and often make use of high-quality printing methods as a counterpoint to mass-produced publications.

Private-press books are printed carefully in limited quantities using methods that wouldn’t make commercial sense for a publisher hoping to sell thousands (or millions) of copies of a particular title. The prices of these books direct from the press, accordingly, are much higher than the average hardcover. Many of the books printed by private presses are already classics of a sort – they appeal to people who want a particularly beautiful version of an already beloved book on their shelf.

In the late 19th century, the private-press movement first emerged in response to the poor quality of commercial printing, Kiffer explained. Dime novels, cheap paperbacks with stories that would appeal to the masses, began popping up in the 1860s and flooded the streets with books that weren’t meant to be treasured so much as consumed.

In 1891, textile designer William Morris founded the Kelmscott Press, the first private press, and began printing books with methods that harkened back to the very earliest days of printing in the 15th century, when books were often rebound by bibliophiles in elegant, custom volumes. The books were hand-printed in limited editions and sometimes heavily decorated with careful attention to book design. Their printing of The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer – which became one of their most famous titles – had woodcut illustrations and was printed in linen-bound boards with a red Morocco slipcase. Only 438 of them were printed. In 2017, a copy sold at Sotheby’s for $52,500.

“Private presses are principally different from other forms of book collecting.”

- Selby Kiffer, International Senior Specialist, Books and Manuscripts

Books & Manuscripts

10 Things That Make Books Valuable

Along with Kelmscott, The Doves Press and Ashendene Press were all part of this early private press movement, and their books today sell for a premium that reflects the age and history their titles represent. However, the fine-press movement is still alive and well today.

“Continuing from those presses to current private presses, very seldom are they printing new work,” Kiffer says. “They often reprint classic texts in a format where the aesthetic of the book is equally if not more important than the text.”

Although its design is reminiscent of the Middle Ages, this book of Geoffrey Chaucer’s collected works from Kelmscott Press was produced by storied publisher William Morris in 1896. Sold by Sotheby’s New York in 2017 for $52,500 — Although its design is reminiscent of the Middle Ages, this book of Geoffrey Chaucer’s collected works from William Morris’s Kelmscott Press was printed by the storied publisher in 1896. Sold by Sotheby’s New York in 2017 for $52,500

Some of these books are relatively affordable – especially compared to an Ashendene original like A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, where a vellum copy sold for £18,750 in 2016. London publisher The Folio Society has been printing special editions of books since it was founded in 1947. Their books start around $60 and go up to a few hundred dollars new. “It’s much more than you’d spend for a book you’ve already read, but you’re getting something attractive that’s nice on the shelf and fun to reread,” Kiffer says. “There’s thought given to the layout, design and quality of the materials.”

Other publishers that have continued this tradition operate at a higher price point. Arion Press only publishes three books a year in limited quantities of 250. Each book is done entirely by hand with letter press and binding all happening under the same roof. New editions of their books start at roughly $1,400 and tend to hold or increase their value on the secondary market.

But, as Kiffer says, the market for private-press books is an outlier in book collecting. Because most of the texts use classics that are out of copyright, the value of these books says less about the historical connection to the author than a first edition of a famous title or a rare early collection of poetry might. The private press movement is kept alive because of a collector’s love of books – maybe they love Moby Dick and want it to live on their shelf as something more special than the average reader’s paperback – but also because of an appreciation of aesthetics and for bookmaking itself as a form of artistry.