The Woodbank Journal

Spine view of William Bulmer: The Fine Printer in Context 1757–1830, showing a half-leather binding with gilt lettering and marbled boards.
William Bulmer and the Shakespeare Press
If Bodoni represented Parma and Didot embodied Paris, William Bulmer may fairly be regarded as London’s answer to both. This essay explores the legacy of the Shakespeare Press, Bulmer’s enduring... Read more...
Robert Fagan double portrait with his wife, Neoclassical painting circa 1803, depicting the artist beside an idealised classical female figure inspired by ancient Greek art and the Grand Tour era.
Robert Fagan's Double Portrait and the Neoclassical Imagination
A painter, antiquarian, art dealer and British consul in Sicily, Robert Fagan lived at the heart of the Grand Tour world. Yet it is not his adventurous life that fascinates... Read more...
Original pencil landscape study by John Constable showing trees and a riverside scene at Lower Wookey Mill
A Constable Watermark and the Long Memory of Paper
A small watermark hidden in a drawing by John Constable reveals an unexpected connection between one of England’s greatest landscape painters and a papermaking tradition that survives to this day.... Read more...
Wedgwood Dancing Hours jasperware plaque, neoclassical relief with four dancing female figures inspired by ancient Greek sculpture, white relief on terracotta ground.
Dancing Hours: Wedgwood and the Classical Ideal
What do Wedgwood's Dancing Hours, the typography of William Bulmer, and the libraries of Georgian Britain have in common? More than one might imagine. Our latest article explores one of the... Read more...