I have been frustrated trying to find editions of Tolkien's works that are consistent across The Hobbit, 3 separate volumes of The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales, and I have given up. I think I have settled on 2 separate consistencies, The Treasury of Middle-Earth boxed 4 volume set, and separately the Harper Collins Special Editions of the other 3 works (the third is Foster's Complete Guide).
But before I pull the trigger on these, I thought I would ask a question (after), but first complain a little about reviewers of book editions. They never seem to know anything about books. The quality of a book is not merely based on whether it is soft or hardbound and has nothing to do with the jacket. The most important characteristic determining the quality of a book itself is the print quality (clear and black type, not bleeding or grey), the binding quality (stitched and not glued, though many stitched bindings are also glued), and the quality of the paper (thicker stock and creamy rather than Bible-thin white or grey pulp).
Ok, that is my rant on edition reviewers. The question I hope someone can answer is, has any edition of any of Tolkien's works ever been printed using a letterpress? I have only ever seen published editions printed using offset and web press. Sometimes we get lucky with offset, and the print is crisp and black, but letterpress printed works always make a superior impression on a page, type is always solid black and crisp under a magnifying glass. You can even feel the impression by letterpress by stroking your fingers across the page. Don't confuse my description with raised intaglio printing, letterpress impresses into the page, while offset printing is flat.
If anyone knows of any letterpress printed editions of Tolkien's works at anytime in history, I'd love to identify them. Thanks.
But before I pull the trigger on these, I thought I would ask a question (after), but first complain a little about reviewers of book editions. They never seem to know anything about books. The quality of a book is not merely based on whether it is soft or hardbound and has nothing to do with the jacket. The most important characteristic determining the quality of a book itself is the print quality (clear and black type, not bleeding or grey), the binding quality (stitched and not glued, though many stitched bindings are also glued), and the quality of the paper (thicker stock and creamy rather than Bible-thin white or grey pulp).
Ok, that is my rant on edition reviewers. The question I hope someone can answer is, has any edition of any of Tolkien's works ever been printed using a letterpress? I have only ever seen published editions printed using offset and web press. Sometimes we get lucky with offset, and the print is crisp and black, but letterpress printed works always make a superior impression on a page, type is always solid black and crisp under a magnifying glass. You can even feel the impression by letterpress by stroking your fingers across the page. Don't confuse my description with raised intaglio printing, letterpress impresses into the page, while offset printing is flat.
If anyone knows of any letterpress printed editions of Tolkien's works at anytime in history, I'd love to identify them. Thanks.
