The Sporting Fishes of the British Isles, 1985
An anthology compiled and illustrated by D. R. Wakefield

The size and ambition and brilliance of this book is astonishing. Wakefield has combined his love and knowledge of fishing with his love and skill as a printer to produce an extraordinary edition that every sportsman and printer will admire and covet.

The text was printed on an Albion hand press of circa 1860 and the etchings on a direct drive etching press of uncertain but similar date. The handmade paper is from Barcham Green. The box was made by Robert Hadrill. Extracts from ‘Coarse Fishing’ by H. T. Sheringham and ‘The Diary of an All-Round Angler’ by P.M. Smythe.

The Chevington Press was established by Bob Wakefield in Devon in 1980. Wakefield studied sculpture at Exeter College of Art and started out making museum replicas. From 1974–1983 he worked with the American artist Leonard Baskin in England and America as a sculpture technician. Then from 1979–1990 he started printing editions of books for Baskin’s Gehenna Press including ‘A Primer of Birds’ by Ted Hughes, ‘Unknown Dutch Artists’, ‘Diptera’ and others using etchings and woodcuts for illustrations and setting and printing all the type by hand.

Wakefield is a keen fisherman and other titles he has published include ‘The Diary and Observations of a Tench Fisher’, ‘The Art of Trout Fishing on the Rapid Streams’ and ‘Some Trout’. In 1988 Wakefield cofounded ‘Compleat Works’, a scenic arts design and build company which has worked for museums across the UK.

20 etchings loose in a box, 425 x 575mm, edition of 100.

£1,900 (plus P&P and insurance)

Barrack Room Ballads, 2012
A selection from Rudyard Kiplings’ anthology compiled and illustrated by D. R. Wakefield

Printed by Bob Wakefield in the ‘indefatigable port and town of Goole in East Yorkshire’. The text is set in 12pt Baskerville. The title page in Perpetua.

7 etchings including the cover, 300 x 400mm, edition of 55.

See the complete book on our Instagram feed.

£1,700 (plus P&P and insurance)