Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2008 Issue
Printing History and technique from the Veatchs Arts of the Book
Bronze relief bust of Harold Hugo by Leonard Baskin.
Item 39 is as thorough a look at a printing business of a century ago as you are likely to find. It is a collection of files from Golding and Company of Boston and Franklin, Massachusetts. The items range from around 1870 to 1915. After William H. Golding died in 1916, the firm was taken over by ATF (American Type Founders of Jersey City). ATF took over many local printing related businesses, and was a huge enterprise at the time. It survived in the dying type production business until around 1990. Included in this collection are 46 general and 21 specific catalogues, 38 U.S. patent certificates plus several from England, Germany and France, shop ledgers, stock lists, engineering blueprints, sales records, un-issued stock certificates, stockholder meeting notes, and seven award medals from international trade expositions. Golding produced some 25,000 presses over its lifetime. $25,000.
Finally, item 6 is most unusual, a bronze relief bust of printer Harold Hugo by famed sculptor Leonard Baskin. Hugo operated the Meriden Gravure Company for many years, and was a friend of Baskin's. He died in 1985. This image is stated to be number 1 of 8, but a Baskin bibliographer suspects fewer than that number were actually made. Only one other is known. This one belonged to Hugo and comes with a photograph of him sitting for the mold. $12,000.
The Veatchs Arts of the Book may be reached at www.veatchs.com, telephone 413-584-1867.
