Featuring publications of relevance to our industry, including those cited in SDS e-newsletter lead articles and suggested additional reading, we’ve recently relaunched the SDS Reader’s Corner book of the month page. Each month we will showcase a suggested read that relates to our professional areas of interest, be it a seminal publication or something more tangential. We hope the books we select will offer you insights and inspiration.
If you any suggestions of books, particularly newly published ones, that you think would be of inte arest to our community, please email us: enquiries@signdesignsociety.co.uk.
For July ’26 we feature The Typefounder’s Hand Mould, by R. Stanley Nelson (published in July ’26, by The Legacy Press and Norwich Printing Museum.)
Synopsis
“This is the long-awaited book by the acknowledged expert on the subject, R. Stanley Nelson. Stan is Curator Emeritus at the NMAH, Graphic Arts Division, where for decades, he gave typecasting demonstrations to museum goers. He soon began taking orders to make replica hand moulds for collections around the world. And it is fitting that he should write this book, which covers not only the history of the typemould, focusing on moulds from European collections, such as Museum of Plantin-Moretus, but Nelson also gives instructions about how to make a typemould.”
Review
“Stan Nelson has written the definitive illustrated history of the typefounder’s hand mould, and the first comprehensive modern manual for anyone wishing to construct such a mould and cast type using it. This will be the standard work on the subject for the next century (at least).”
Paul W. Nash, PhD, FSA; Journal of the Printing Historical Society”
As of 06.07.2026, the hardback edition is available to buy @£52.41 via Oak Knoll.