The Printers’ Register [and Bookbinders’ and Stationers’ Record]

Subtitle: “A monthly paper devoted to the interests of printers and newspaper proprietors and the advancement of typography”

Alternate Subtitle(s)

  • “A monthly paper devoted to the interests of printers, newspaper proprietors, bookbinders, stationers, and fancy tradesmen” (Mitchell’s 1895)
  • “The Stationer and Bookbinder’s Record” (“The Bibliography”)

Related Journals

  • Newspaper Press
    • The Printers’ Register gets incorporated with The Newspaper Press in 1872 (Waterloo Online) or 1873 (Ulrich and Kup p. 60, 89)

Start Date(s)

  • 1863 (“The Bibliography”)
  • 1868 (Willing’s)
  • 1883 (Caspar's Directory )

End Date(s)

  • 1956 (Shattock)
  • 1928 (COPAC)

Editor(s)

Printer/Publisher(s)

City

  • London, England (journal itself)
  • Gloucester, England (Stewart)

Circulation Count

  • 5,000 in 1902 (Blades)

Type of Content

  • “This was the first British printing trade journal devoted to practical articles and trade news. Its early volumes are particularly valuable for events in the trade, technical developments, lectures, and obituaries” (Berry and Poole p. 245)
  • “Trade topics, commercial immorality, employers and employed, business jottings, foreign and commercial memoranda, specimens, supplement, notes on periodicals, legal notes, companies, personal, correspondence, business notices, obituary, London Society of Compositors, foreign and colonial memoranda, the printer's engineers, notes on periodicals, the printers’ &c., exhibition, advertisements” (Waterloo Online)
  • “Provides an enormous amount of information on all aspects of printing and the trade” (Waterloo Online)
  • A. C. J. Powell’s A Short History of the Art of Printing in England was inserted into The Printers’ Register in June 1877 as a supplement to commemorate the 400th anniversary of printing in England (Powell, title page)

Notes

  • “Circulates widely in the trade throughout the world” (May’s 1875, p. 96)
  • Illustrated by Powell & Son (Willing’s 1891, p. 94)
  • “The first printers’ magazine in this country apart from those dealing with trade conditions. Its one thousand monthly issues form a useful summary of events great and small since 1863; its first fifteen years being specially useful for printing machiner and typesetting machinery development” (Catalogue 27)
  • “The first number of this periodical was published July 1, 1863, by James Caton, Salisbury-square. For the first twelve months it was given away, but in the following July it was issued at a penny, and printed and edited by Mr. William Dorrington, who retired from it in 1866 to start his Press News. The late Mr. Joseph M. Powell (who died in 1874) was the proprietor of the journal, and its proprietor from the beginning until his death, since which time it has been conducted by his son, Mr. Arthur C. J. Powell, barrister-at-law. With it is incorporated The Newspaper Press. In 1879 a new subtitle was added: ‘the Stationer and Bookbinder’s Record’” (Bigmore and Wyman vol. 2, p. 185)
  • Hailing calls this journal “one of the oldest of our trade organs, and it succeeds, in the face of formidable younger rivals, in holding its own. It is the medium through which much solid information reaches the printing fraternity. It is necessary, however, for its readers to take some of its statements cum grano salis when dealing with the subject of employers and employed, as its bias lies towards the former” (Hailing, “Golden” p. 16)
  • “The first organ for the printing trade, The Printers’ Register, 1863, was for twelve months presented gratis and afterwards at one penny monthly. Its contents are valued, for ‘Its one thousand monthly issues form a useful summary of events great and small, its first fifteen years being especially useful for printing machinery and typesetting development’” (Elliott p. 182)
  • “Principles: Neutral. It is devoted to the interests of printing and its associate trades. The Register contains all information as to the progress of the art of printing in all parts of the world. It also contains special articles upon the construction of printing machinery, on colour printing, and illustrated biographies of the chief printers’ engineers. A variety of matter interesting to the bookbinding and stationery trades is also given” (Mitchell’s 1895, p. 75)
  • “The PRINTERS’ REGISTER contains much Interesting and valuable Information on the progress of the Art, both at home and abroad. It circulates very largely, both here and in Australasia, India, China, Canada, etc. and it affords the best medium for advertising any matter connected with the Trade that has ever been offered to the public” (Mitchell’s 1895, p. 252)
  • “For those who want to be kept up to date, the column ‘The Month’s Bright Ideas’ is recommended” (Ulrich and Kup p. 89)
  • The Pentateuch of Printing lists a number of “fugitive pieces and contributions” found in The Printers’ Register (Blades p. xxi-xxiv)
  • Publisher’s address (Dorrington): 62 Fleet Street (BLT19 Database); or 4 Bouverie St. (Mitchell's 1895, p. 75)
  • Publisher’s address (J. M. Powell & Son, in 1889): 33A Ludgate Hill (Caspar’s p. 1287)
  • Other sources that discuss this journal that did not fit into the list below:
    • Stewart, vol. 3, p. 604
    • Ulrich and Kup, p. 60, 89
    • Victorian Periodicals, ed. by Scott Bennett, J. Donn Vann, and Rosemary T. VanArsdel, p. 155
    • Willing’s 1891, p. 94

Subject Categories

Issues

Sources that Discuss this Journal

  • BLT19
  • Berry and Poole p. 245
  • “The Bibliography” vol. 7, p. 117
  • Bigmore and Wyman vol. 2, p. 185
  • Blades pp. xxi-xxiv
  • Brown and Stratton vol. 2, p. 1095
  • COPAC
  • Caspar's Directory p. 1287
  • Elliott p. 182
  • Hailing p. 16
  • Mitchell’s 1895 p. 75, 252
  • NSTC
  • Shattock p. 51
  • Smith's p. 387

Works Cited

  • Berry, W. Turner, and H. Edmund Poole. Annals of Printing: A Chronological Encyclopedia from the Earliest Times to 1950. Blandford P, 1966.
  • “The Bibliography of Printing.” The Printing Times and Lithographer, vol. 7, nos. 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, Jan.-June 1881. HathiTrust.
  • Bigmore, E. C., and C. W. H. Wyman. A Bibliography of Printing. 1880. Oak Knoll P and the British Library, 2001.
  • Blades, William. The Pentateuch of Printing, with a Chapter on Judges. Elliot Stock, 1891. Google Books.
  • BLT19 Trade and Professional Press Database 1900. Created by Andrew King, 2020.
  • Brown, Peter, and George B. Stratton. World List of Scientific Periodicals Published in the Years 1900-1960. 4 vols. Butterworths, 1963.
  • Caspar's Directory of the American Book, edited by Carl Nicolaus Caspar. C. N. Caspar, 1889. Google Books.
  • COPAC: Consortium of Online Public Access Catalogues. Library Hub Discover, JISC.
  • Elliott, Blanche Beatrice. “The Rapid Growth of the Trade Press.” A History of English Advertising. Business Publications Ltd., 1962, pp. 179–94.
  • Hailing, Thomas. "Golden Opinions." Hailing's Circular, vol. 1, no. 4, Spring 1879, p. 16-17. Google Books.
  • Mitchell’s Newspaper Press Directory and Advertiser’s Guide. C. Mitchell, 1895.
  • NSTC (Nineteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue), in C19: The Nineteenth-Century Index, Chadwyck-Heaney, 2020. ProQuest.
  • Shattock, Joanne. The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Vol. 4: 1800-1900. Edited by Frederick W. Bateson. 3rd ed. Cambridge UP. 1999.
  • Smith's Advertising Agency, London. Successful Advertising: Its Secrets Explained by Smith's Advertising Agency. Smith's Advertising Agency, 1902. HathiTrust.
  • Stewart, James D., editor. British Union-Catalogue of Periodicals. 4 vols. Butterworths, 1968.
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