Saturday, August 22, 2009: Today was the day we got to see the Dard Hunter Studios at the Mountain House in Chillicothe, Ohio. Dard Hunter III, a young man in his early 40s, met us and gave us a most gracious and hospitable welcome. Dard led one contingent of the group into his grandfather's printing area, which today is very much like when Dard Hunter I produced many of the books for which he is deservedly famous. Dard Hunter printed on paper he himself made, using ink he had made, with type he had hand-cast from matrices he had punched using punches he himself had cut! And the printing is impeccable. He was an amazingly talented man.
The next division of the tour was to an outbuilding housing the studio of Eileen Wallace's Mile Wide Press. (Eileen is the girlfriend of Dard III, and the name of her press is derived from the river near where Eileen grew up; the bridge spanning the river is one mile long.) Eileen showed us her Heidelberg platen press. There is also a Heidelberg cylinder press in the studio, which she did not demonstrate. In the upstairs of her studio is her bookbinding area. Unlike the original Dard Hunter, Eileen uses photopolymer in her printing, but her craftsmanship is indeed beautiful.
The other leg of the tour led us through the rooms of the Mountain House, the Hunter residence since the early 1900s. The wood paneling on the walls, the pottery, the furniture, colored glass panels: all was totally exquisite.
Linda's blog gives a description of our visit to the Studio and warehouse. Dard, Eileen, and others served us an amazing lunch!
