As far as the Abramson blocks are concerned, we move on to 1970 for the next important production. That year saw the publication of R. Hunter Middleton’s most ambitious work under the Cherryburn Press imprint.
‘In his introduction to the 1945 portfolio Mr. Middleton stated that "if the experiment is approved by any considerable public response, the said public is hereby warned to expect further instalments from the scant hundred blocks now in the printers possession." Now, some twenty-five years later, the long awaited second portfolio is ready for distribution. Since that date the printer’s collection grew to 170 blocks...The hundred which he has selected...are all in...The Newberry Library, eighty-one of them the gift of Mr. Middleton; the remaining nineteen blocks include some dozen selected by the late Ernst Detterer...The edition is limited to 150 copies, of which 125 are for sale at $300 the set’. 6
In 1972 the final Bewick portfolio came out of the Cherryburn Press entitled: 10 Working Drawings. This utilized reproductions of preliminary pencil drawings done by Bewick in preparation for the final engraving. The drawings, originally shown at the V & A in 1953, subsequently came onto the market in 1961 and R.H.M was able to buy them for the Cherryburn Press. Apart from one example, which used a reproduction, Middleton was able to print the appropriate block to correspond with its original transfer marked drawing. The work is in an edition of 160 sets, 145 were for sale at $40, each signed by Middleton.
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10 Working Drawings. The Cherryburn Press 1972
