Will Rueter on Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson

Will Rueter is the proprietor of the Aliquando Press which was founded in 1962 "to enable its proprietor to learn the basics of printing and binding books by hand." To date the Press has produced 109 books. It is located in Dundas, Ontario.

Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson was a renowned British bookbinder, and passionate private printer. He was proprietor of the Doves Press, one of the most influential private presses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Its standards of quality have influenced commercial and fine presses for more than a century.

I met with Will at his workshop in Dundas to talk about his press, and Cobden-Sanderson. Among other things we discuss bookbinding, dinner with William Morris, the Doves Press, Emery Walker, Doves' type, Bessie Hooley, Majesty, Beauty and Order, red ink, Jim Rimmer, patterns and ornaments, Elbert Hubbard, Leonard Barr, Paul Dinsing, Rollin Milroy and his Heavenly Monkey Press, the Hogarth Press, the Nonesuch Press, polymer plates, Massey College, "The Seafarer", printing and emotion; responsibility, sincerity, and connection with the words and the author.