Rampant Lions Press

{{short description|British letterpress firm}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox company | name = Rampant Lions Press | logo = | logo_caption = | logo_alt = | type = | industry = [[Letterpress printing]] | predecessor =  | founded = {{Start date and age|1924}} | founder = Will Carter | defunct = {{End date|2008}} | fate = | successor =  | hq_location_city = Cambridge, England | hq_location_country = | area_served =  | key_people = Sebastian Carter | products = | owner =  | num_employees = | num_employees_year =  | parent = }} The '''Rampant Lions Press''' was a fine [[letterpress]] [[printing]] firm in Britain, operating from 1924 to 2008. The firm was founded by Will Carter (24 September 1912 – 17 March 2001), publishing its first book in 1936, and was continued by his son, Sebastian Carter (b. 1941), from 1966.<ref name="Some observations of a small printer">{{cite journal|last1=Carter|first1=Will|title=Some observations of a small printer|journal=Monotype Recorder|date=Summer 1954|volume=40|issue=2|pages=9–24|url=http://www.metaltype.co.uk/downloads/mr/mr_40_2.pdf|accessdate=19 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="Will Carter obituary">{{cite web|last1=Rogers|first1=Timothy|title=Will Carter obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/mar/22/guardianobituaries|website=The Guardian|date=22 March 2001|accessdate=17 September 2015}}</ref><ref>[http://www.rampantlionspress.com/History.html History], The Rampant Lions Press.</ref>

== History == Rampant Lions started life as a [[private press]] in 1924, when Will Carter was still a schoolboy. After the war, his interest in printing was such that he decided to try to establish the Press on a commercial footing, and did so in [[Cambridge]] in 1949. From that date until the formal closure of the Press at the end of 2008, Rampant Lions has been among the most highly regarded letterpress printing-offices in Britain. The skills of Will and Sebastian Carter in design and press-work have been recognized by publishers, who commissioned work from them. Their skills have also been recognized by collectors, who have sought out their publications since the 1950s. Sebastian Carter also has an international reputation as a writer on type and typography and is the author of several books,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL331778A/Sebastian_Carter|title=Sebastian Carter|website=Open Library|publisher=Internet Archive}}</ref> including in 2013 ''The Rampant Lion Press: A Narrative Catalogue''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/men-of-letters-2/|title=Men of Letters – Bibliography|first=John|last=Randle|work=[[The Times Literary Supplement|TLS]]|access-date=29 August 2020}}</ref>

Besides printing, Carter also designed two fonts for [[Monotype Imaging|Monotype]], Klang and Octavian, the latter with [[David Kindersley]].<ref name="Klang MT">{{cite web|title=Klang MT|url=http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/klang/|website=MyFonts|accessdate=17 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="Octavian MT">{{cite web|title=Octavian MT|url=http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/octavian/|website=MyFonts|accessdate=17 September 2015}}</ref> He also designed signage and a font for [[Dartmouth College]], where he was artist-in-residence for a time.<ref>[https://news.dartmouth.edu/events/event?event=50768#.XKm__1VKjIU "Exhibition: Will Carter and the Dartmouth Typeface – The story of the development of the letterforms that became known as the Dartmouth typeface"]. Dartmouth College, 21 March 2018.</ref>

==Legacy== At the [[Fitzwilliam Museum]] from 18 March to 18 May 2014, the exhibition ''The Rampant Lions Press: A Letterpress Odyssey'' took place, featuring books published since 1982, when the press had been the subject of a retrospective exhibition there,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/calendar/whatson/rampant-lions-press-letterpress-odyssey|title=The Rampant Lions Press: A Letterpress Odyssey|publisher=The Fitzwilliam Museum|location=Cambridge|date=2014}}</ref> celebrating ''A Printing Workshop Through Five Decades''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.letteringartstrust.org.uk/events/will-carter-retrospective|title=Will Carter Retrospective|publisher=The Lettering Arts Trust|access-date=29 August 2020}}</ref> The retrospective ''Will Carter: Man of Letters'' took place at the Lettering Arts Centre, [[Snape Maltings]], [[Suffolk]], in April 2022,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.stonespecialist.com/news/events/lettering-arts-trust-presents-will-carter-man-letters|title=The Lettering Arts Trust presents – Will Carter: Man of Letters|first=Eric|last=Bignell|website=Stone Specialist|date=29 April 2022|access-date=26 December 2023}}</ref> and subsequently at the Robert Cripps Gallery, [[Magdalene College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.letteringartstrust.org.uk/events/will-carter-man-of-letters?rq=Will%20Carter|title=Will Carter - Man of Letters|website=The Lettering Arts Trust|access-date=26 December 2023}}</ref>

==Further reading== * Carter, Sebastian, et al. ''The Rampant Lions Press: a printing workshop through five decades'' (Rampant Lions, Cambridge, 1982). {{ISBN|0-902591-12-6}} (paperback), {{ISBN|0-902591-11-8}} (cased). * Carter, Sebastian, "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: Closing the Rampant Lions Press Workshop", in ''Parenthesis''; 19 (Autumn 2010), pp. 9–11. * Carter, Sebastian, [https://www.oakknoll.com/pages/books/114713/sebastian-carter/rampant-lions-press-a-narrative-catalogue-the ''The Rampant Lion Press: A Narrative Catalogue''], New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2013 (208 pages). {{ISBN|9781584563211}}

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==External links== * [http://www.rampantlionspress.com Rampant Lions Press website] (including a catalogue of books in print) * Nicolas Barket, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/will-carter-728942.html Obituary of Will Carter]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, ''The Independent'', 20 March 2001. * [http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-26317.html "Will Carter"], Luc Devroye. * [https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt329033gf/ Finding Aid for the Rampant Lions Press Collection 1961–2001], The Online Archive of California.

[[Category:1924 establishments in England]] [[Category:Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:British companies established in 1924]] [[Category:Private press movement]] [[Category:Publishing companies established in 1924]] [[Category:Small press publishing companies]]