An early member of The Society of Typographic Arts: R.H.Middleton for a number of years served as secretary. On 16 December 1943 he called a meeting of the STA; Thomas Bewick was on the agenda. This occasion gave Middleton the opportunity to present to friends and colleagues examples of his printing experiments. A small folder in Middleton paste paper with STA Keepsake Number Three inside contained just two impressions from his Bewick blocks: the Springer Deer and Long Tailed Field Mouse.

RHM had firm views about the way that prints should be taken from Bewick blocks. Of his own devising and using dry Japanese paper – methods a world away from Bewick’s day of vellum skins, blankets within the tympans and dampened paper. The resulting deep impressions, to some eyes at least, show a very personal interpretation of Bewick’s intent. Nonetheless, he certainly went to enormous lengths and developed great skill in achieving the end result:

‘The simplest way to obtain a proof...is to use a sufficient amount of soft paper as packing to force the paper down into all printing elevations. The print thus made will be embossed to some extent but it may be pressed flat when dry. This procedure should not be repeated too often with the same packing, as it compresses with each impression made, and correspondingly varies the printed result. The best make-ready is one which is hard or at least firm...final adjustment in the make-ready is made by various cut-outs in the packing’.

The above is an extract from the pamphlet issued with Middleton’s first published work: Thomas Bewick Portfolio, The Cherryburn Press 1945 [1944]. Containing 24 prints, one of which is signed by the printer, the total production was limited to 160 sets: each cost $25. A scarce item today, distribution was often by personal contact and publicity mostly by word of mouth.

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