Hand & Eye Letterpress

Hand & Eye is a letterpress printing and publishing house founded by Phil Abel in Whitechapel, east London. Its own site dates the operation precisely: "We started in 1985 as jobbing printers, and now print books and record sleeves that find their way to a world-wide audience." It cites the twentieth-century Curwen and Shenval presses in Britain, and Riverside and Stinehour in the United States, as the operations it drew inspiration from when it began.

Four decades on, the shop works from 12 Pinchin Street on two large-format Heidelberg platen presses and a FAG Control 525 proofing press, backed by an extensive collection of wood and metal type. Most current work is printed from photopolymer plates made in-house, letting the studio control every stage of a job from typesetting through to the finished sheet.

Hand & Eye's list of illustrated letterpress editions includes The Wind in the Willows and A Christmas Carol alongside newer titles such as Shadows of Time, The Woman in White, A Far Away Country, and Dear Edward, published for private-press collectors and general readers alike. Alongside its own books, the studio takes on commercial jobbing work, including catalogues for art galleries, keeping the letterpress operation earning its keep between editions the way it has since 1985.