Stationers not stationary The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers has an exceptional and intriguing history, spanning 600 years at the forefront of printing and publishing. In the past everyone who wanted to trade in the City had to belong to the relevant livery th company. In the 15 century manuscript writers and booksellers set up stations around St Paul’s Cathedral, gaining the name ‘Stationers’. A Guild of Stationers was formed in 1403 and became a livery company in 1557 when it was granted a Royal Charter. This was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.
Over the years the Company has had different halls, buying larger sites when needed, and rebuilding after the Great Fire. Its current hall has existed since 1670. The Company continues to hold traditional ceremonies and stage lectures and seminars on topics of interest. Its objectives include playing an active part in the City of London, making its archives accessible to the public and maintaining its influence in the Content and Communications industries. This exhibition will take you on a journey through the history of the Stationers, giving you a chance to see some of their most precious objects along the way.
n o i t a c u d E The Stationers’ Company has always played an important role in education, initially through offering apprenticeships. Becoming an apprentice was one of the main ways of joining the Company, and they would serve for up to seven years with a printer who was a member. After their apprenticeship they would be able to join the Company as freemen. In 1861 the Company set up the Stationers’ Company’s School for sons of members, just off Fleet Street, and later moving to Hornsey. It educated up to 500 pupils each term, which increasingly included students who were not children of liverymen. This was changed from a grammar school to a comprehensive in 1967. The school closed in 1984, but in 2014 a partnership was formed with Crown Woods College.
William Blake was bound as an apprentice to James Basire, an engraver, for £52.10.0. Many notable men have been part of the Stationers Company in the past, including Rudyard Kipling and Sir James Barrie. © The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
This broadside from 1795 has a verse about the rules of apprenticeships. The note at the bottom shows this has been entered into the copyright Register at Stationers’ Hall. © City of London
This became Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy, part of the Leigh Academies Trust. The Stationers’ Digital Media Centre has recently been created at the Academy. Traditional classrooms have been turned into a multi-media digital centre, complete with industry-standard equipment and contemporary furniture. This enables students to produce their own online media content, printed newspapers and magazines. Members of the Stationers volunteer their time to provide governance, professional expertise and mentoring, and students have access to a wide range of opportunities in education, industry and commerce.
William Caxton (1422-1491) was instrumental in bringing printing to this country. He spent much of his early career in Bruges and Cologne, where he became familiar with the new printing industry. He probably introduced the printing press to England, and became the first English bookseller. Printing became integral to the work of the Stationers. In the early days of the Company, all members had to be associated with the printing trade, and all printers in the City had to be members. The Master and Wardens of the Company were granted rights to control the trade, and they kept track of who printed what, and had the power to search shops for prohibited books. The Company is now made up of over 900 members, most of whom are involved in the Content and Communication industries, which includes work relating to paper, print, publishing, packaging, newspaper and media.
By the 18th and 19th centuries embossing and paper lace making became a highlyskilled technique amongst Stationers. The methods used for both are very similar – with embossing the surface of the paper is raised by mechanical pressure applied to a mould, whereas with lace making the pressure breaks the surface of the paper so as to remove the relevant parts. It is thought that lace work arose as a result of faulty embossing. This needs several tons of pressure, which meant that an embossing press was normally located at basement level and a small boy would crawl under it to remove and stack the paper or card after each application.
A rebus was a popular puzzle in the 18th and 19th centuries, in which pictures replaced words. © Historystore Ltd
The technique was perfected by Joseph Addenbrooke in the 1830s and there are a number of different ways in which the process can be used, including blind embossing and cameo embossing. The first British patent for the process was taken out by John Hancock in 1796 but it was the London firms of Dobbs and Mansell which are best known for their commercial productions.
Caxton’s printer’s device, an early form of logo. © City of London
An example of embossed paper. © Historystore Ltd
s l l i k S
Newspapers have played a major part in London’s history as a means of using printing to communicate information. One of the earliest newspapers was The London Gazette. This was also the government’s official public record, and was first published in 1665. It fulfilled an important role in 1666 when it reported the details of the Great Fire, including its nature and causes. Like most other activities in the City of London, it was temporarily suspended while the Fire was raging through the City. News about London was not restricted to readers in the capital. Newspapers allowed information about London to be circulated throughout the entire country. Early publications such as the Gloucester Chronicle (1723) and the Stamford Mercury (1729) included the London Weekly Bills of Mortality.
The Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks compiled these Bills each week as a means of recording causes of death and number of burials in the City of London. The Bills are particularly enlightening for understanding the impact of the Great Plague of 1665. Although there are questions about their accuracy, as people with limited medical knowledge often established the causes of death, they are the closest things we have to accurate statistics. The Stationers’ Company combined with the Worshipful Company of Newspaper Makers in 1933, thereby inheriting the history of the newspaper industry, which goes back hundreds of years. A new Royal Charter was granted in 1937 and since then they have been known as the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers.
The London Gazette. © City of London
This broadside communicated important information about the Great Plague of 1665 and other earlier outbreaks of the disease in London, including the number of deaths and suggested remedies. © City of London
The Stamford Mercury, a local newspaper from 1729, reported deaths in London. © Historystore Ltd
New spa per s
This plaque commemorates Edgar Wallace, the founder of the Worshipful Company of Newspaper Makers. They merged with the Stationers’ Company in 1933. © The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Before the 20th century, one of the key roles of the Stationers was regulating copyright. If a member of the Company wanted to print a work, they had to obtain a licence from a Warden of the Company, and enter it into the Register which was kept at Stationers’ Hall. This was in force until the Copyright Act of 1911. The Register granted copyright to the printer rather than the author of the works, meaning the Stationers made significant profits from the printing of major works such as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs in the 16th century. As part of its involvement in enforcing copyright, the Company also had the right to seize illegal books and printing presses.
A lot of the entries in the Register are very famous works, including Shakespeare’s First Folio. © The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Dr Johnson’s Dictionary is entered in the Register. © The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
t h g i r y p o C
The Stationers were granted the right to be the sole printer of almanacs by James I, which lasted until 1775. Almanacs are annual publications containing important dates and forecasts. One of the most famous examples was Old Moore’s Almanack, which contained astrological and weather forecasts. It first appeared in 1697 and is still published each year by other publishers. The patent for almanacs was very profitable for the Company, and much of the money was used for charitable purposes. As well as almanacs, the Stationers also had sole rights to print other items, such as playing cards and music books, and shared the right to print Bibles 6 and Prayer Books with Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
The Stationers printed an almanac each year. This depicts “Almanac Day” at Stationers’ Hall where the new almanacs were distributed from. © City of London
The Stationers’ almanac from 1769. © City of London