The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989 Page: 467
682 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Of Birds and Texas
"It's got to be an Audubon!" He asked the dealer to hold the painting
and cautiously sought Scott's agreement before calling back to confirm
that they would purchase it.'
Finally, they turned their attention to selecting a printer. The Gent-
lings thought first of Richard-Gabriel Rummonds at the Plain Wrapper
Press in Cottondale, Alabama, and Meriden-Stinehour, a combination
of a small, quality printer located in Meriden, Connecticut, with a master
designer, typesetter, and letterpress printer in Lunenburg, Vermont.
Both have been recognized for the quality of their work for decades.
But the Gentlings' desire to make this an all-Texas book led them to
talk with one of the better-known printers in Dallas before learning of
David Holman and the Wind River Press in Austin. Stuart visited with
Holman and liked his work. Holman had to acquire a color press for
the job, but Stuart remembered a comment that he had made: "If I
do it, and it's done in one shop, I can guarantee you it will have in-
creased prestige among people who are interested in collecting fine
books ... .""' Stuart decided to take the chance.
Design was a cooperative venture that involved the Gentlings, of
course, for they had strong feelings about how their book should look;
Holman, generally recognized to be one of the most creative book de-
signers in the state; Craig Jensen, the binder; and John Chalmers, the
librarian of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the Uni-
versity of Texas at Austin. Once it was settled, the fifty-three paintings
were shipped to Color Separations Incorporated in San Antonio to
make the color separations. The text was dispatched to Mackenzie-
Harris in San Francisco, one of the few typesetters left in the country
still operating Monotype machines, which produce classically elegant
type in separate moveable characters that Holman was to use on his
thirty-two-inch Heidelberg letterpress."
The paintings were reproduced on a two-color Heidelberg offset
press that Holman acquired. The process was helped along by Scott's
and Stuart's realistic notion of what to expect as the prints began to
come off the press, for anyone experienced in color printing knows
that it is impossible to exactly reproduce a palette as sophisticated as the
Gentlings'. "We considered the paintings intermediate steps between
our idea and the finished pictures," Stuart said. "We realize that a
printer cannot reproduce an image exactly, so we did our pictures in
a manner that would enhance what David could do on the press. We
9Gentling to R. T.
1'Gentling to R. T.
"Announcement for Of Bzrds and Texas, Gentlihng to R. T.467
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989, periodical, 1989; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101212/m1/521/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.