81. De Zilverdistel

The poet J.H. Leopold (1865-1925) published his poem Cheops in 1914, when he was 49 years old. Yet seven years later his fellow writer, A. Roland Holst, called it a farewell, since Leopold had hardly published anything after Cheops and the poem formed the culmination of Leopold's poetic genius. A farewell it might have been, but at the same time it was part of a new beginning. The movement which sought to raise the standards of book design and printing by restoring the place of the individual craftsman, started in England by William Morris, caught on in the Netherlands in the beginning of the twentieth century. De Zilverdistel, the first Dutch private press was established in 1909 by Jan Greshoff, together with J.C. Bloem and P.N. van Eyck. Originally it was a bibliophile publishing house: the poets chose the texts and were involved in the design, but the books were actually printed by a professional printer. For the first publications old typefaces were used, and Joh. Enschedé en Zonen had plenty to choose from. De Zilverdistel only became a veritable private press after J.F. van Royen had joined the group. He reverted to printing the books by hand, initially on a hand-press at Enschedé's, and subsequently on his own. All in all sixteen books were published by De Zilverdistel, the last one in 1919. Four years later Van Royen continued the press, now called Kunera-Pers. The pages shown here are from the thirteenth Zilverdistel book, the first part of the sub-series ‘Vereeniging der vijftig’, a society with a maximum of fifty members, who committed themselves to buying the books appearing in this series. It was printed by Van Royen in the type designed specially for De Zilverdistel by S.H. de Roos, the Zilvertype. De Roos also made the woodcut for the initial title on the page reproduced here. An interesting detail is found on the last page of the book, which contains the statement ‘This copy has been printed for the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague’. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek was a member of the ‘Vereeniging der vijftig’, and as such the proud owner of one copy of all five books that appeared in the series, with the statement printed in each copy.

Literature

• J.F. van Royen en P.N. van Eyck. Over boekkunst en de Zilverdistel. 's-Gravenhage 1916  
• C.L. van Halsbeke. L'art typographique dans les Pays-Bas depuis 1892. Maestricht 1929      
• J.H. Leopold. Gedichten I. Historisch-kritische uitgave (ed. A.L. Sötemann en H.T.M. van Vliet). Dl. 2. Amsterdam 1983, p. 96-110
• D. Kroon. In deze weidsche vlucht. De Koning Cheops. Teksten omtrent Cheops van J.H. Leopold. 's-Gravenhage 1983
• Zilvertype corps 15. Briefwisseling tussen J.F. van Royen en S.H. de Roos over het ontwerp van de Zilvertype, 1914-16. Amsterdam 1994.