Kuthan's Menagerie Completed book
Kuthan's Menagerie Completed

Vancouver, British Columbia: Nevermore Press & Heavenly Monkey, 1960 & 2003. Edition of 50.

9.75 x 13". Letterpress printed in 18 pt Perpetua on Golden Hind. Laid in clamshell box. Numbered. Signed by Robert Reid.

Heavenly Monkey: "Kuthan's Menagerie of Interesting Zoo Animals was published in 1960 from the private press of Robert and Felicity Reid (under the imprint Nevermore Press). It has since become famous in the history of fine printing in Canada, not just for Kuthan's exquisite multi-color linocuts of animals, but also for the fact that only 60 of the edition's 130 copies were ever bound; the balance remained in the bindery, eventually forgotten but luckily, not lost. Heavenly Monkey has completed the book's issue. Kuthan's Menagerie measures 9.75 x 13 inches. The paper is Golden Hind, a laid sheet, printed one side only and folded. Reid explains this both helped solve a problem with see-through and bulk up the book (which consists of 13 sheets forming 26 pages, from half title to colophon). The pages were printed landscape, and the sheets bound along the open edge. The unbound copies were purchased from the original binder's estate by Vancouver booksellers Stephen Lunsford and William Hoffer, in the late '80s; all of the 50 complete copies remaining have now been issued through Heavenly Monkey. Rather than attempt to recreate the original binding, the remaining copies were issued in the livre d 'artiste manner - loose, with a new wrap and custom-made clamshell box. Kuthan's Menagerie Completed feature a new title page; the two-page preface by Robert R. Reid, the original publisher; and an additional colophon, all printed at Heavenly Monkey in 18-point Perpetua on the same Golden Hind paper used in the original book. The original sheets are surrounded by an inner wrap of the yellow Japanese paper used for endsheets in the copies bound in 1960. All of the sheets are held in an outer wrap of handmade St Armand paper. The colophon is numbered (50 copies) and signed by Robert Reid. (Please note these copies do not bear George Kuthan's signature. The copies issued in 1960 were numbered and signed after being bound.) The clamshell box, made by Simone Mynen, is covered in red Japanese fabric with decorative printed labels debossed on the front and spine."
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