Moschatel Press is a small press publisher producing artist's books and poetry collections.[1] It was founded in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, in 1973, by the artist Laurie Clark and the Scottish poet Thomas A. Clark and moved to Pittenweem, Fife in 2002.[2] The press "is named after adoxa moschatellina, a plant known locally as Town Clock for its four-way green flower heads, with a fifth flower facing the sky."[3] Their main line is in "publishing minimal texts, visual poetry and the like in small neat booklets and postcards."[4]
They have published work by Ian Hamilton Finlay among other artists; although most of their output is their own work[5] which frequently consists of reflections on nature.[6] A treadle press they were given as a wedding present inspired the founding of Moschatel Press, allowing them to print poems and send them to friends.[7] The treadle press was replaced by a tabletop Adana printing press.
Founders
editThomas A. Clark was born in Greenock, Scotland in 1944 and left school, "barely literate", at 15. He then worked in factories and warehouses for the next eight year, before realising "there was a world outside to be lived in".[8]
Clark moved to England in 1967.
Laurie Clark was born in New York in 1949 and married Thomas A. Clark in 1972.
Cairn Gallery
editIn 1986 the Clarks established the Cairn Gallery initially in Days Mill, Nailsworth, and subsequently in Pittenweem. The Gallery an artist-run space, for land art, minimalism and lyrical or poetic conceptualism.[2]
Publications
editThe list of publications is first derived from the Moschatel Press Bibliography published by the press itself for an exhibition at the Coracle Press, Camberwell, from 1 December 1979 to 5 January 1980. The list of subsequent publications is not definitive. All works are by Thomas A. Clark unless otherwise stated.
A box set of 67 publications was issued in 1982. Further collections were issued as "A Box Of Landscapes" in 2010 and 2016, comprising publications spanning forty years of the Moschatel Press and others.
In addition to his work with Moschatel Press, Thomas A. Clark led a group of artists installing artworks in the new Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow for its opening in 2009.[9]
| Publication Year | Title | Author | Artist | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Fill In The Drawing | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1973 | Fritillary | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1973 | Folding The Last Sheep | Publication year not printed | ||
| 1973 | An Epitaph | |||
| 1973 | The Garden | |||
| 1974 | Horizon | |||
| 1974 | Four Flowers | |||
| 1974 | A Wee Tot For Catullus | Jonathan Williams | ||
| 1974 | Snowdrop | Ian Hamilton Finlay | Publication year not printed | |
| 1974 | Iris | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1974 | Shape & Shade | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1974 | September | Publication year not printed | ||
| 1974 | Not Now | Cid Corman | ||
| 1974 | A Basket of Landscapes | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1974 | Pebbles | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1975 | Glade | |||
| 1975 | Deserts of Afghanistan | Helen Williams | ||
| 1975 | L'Invitation Au Voyage | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1975 | Anemone | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1975 | Moss Stitch | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1975 | A Vase Of Daffodils | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1976 | Petits Fours | |||
| 1976 | Painted Lady | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1976 | Two Horizons | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1976 | Clare's "Journey Out Of Essex" | Simon Cutts | Laurie Clark | |
| 1976 | Thrums | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1976 | Hart's Tongue | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1977 | Foliations | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1977 | Two Acres | |||
| 1977 | The Bright Glade | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1977 | A Meadow Voyage | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1977 | Haystacks and Islands | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1978 | Nine Roses | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1978 | Fly Patterns For Still Waters | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1978 | Gatherings | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1978 | Water Cresses | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1978 | Quatrefoils | Laurie Clark | Printed for South West Review; publication year not printed | |
| 1979 | After Pissarro | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1979 | Two Evergreen Horizons | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1979 | A Glade Of Lances | |||
| 1979 | The Dappled Glade | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1979 | Style | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1979 | Of Leaves | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1979 | Proverbs Of The Meadow | Laurie Clark | Publication year not printed | |
| 1979 | Four English Flowers | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1979 | From A Glossary Of Old Scots | |||
| 1979 | Moschatel Press Bibliography | with introduction by Alan Tucker | Laurie Clark | 600 copies |
| 1979 | A Rock Pool | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1979 | In The Scottish Lowlands | |||
| 1979 | A Short Tour of the Highlands | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1979 | The Frog Leaps Thirteen Times | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1980 | Four Horizons | |||
| 1980 | Tansy Buttons | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1980 | A Herb Garden | 250 signed and numbered copies | ||
| 1980 | Adjectives For Grasses | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1980 | Proverbs Of The Mountain | Laurie Clark | 300 signed and numbered copies | |
| 1980 | Parenthetical Land | Laurie Clark | Card for opening of Alan & Joan Tucker's new bookshop, Stroud, Glos | |
| 1981 | A Delphinium Border | 200 numbered copies | ||
| 1981 | Dicotyledons | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1981 | From A Bookseller's Catalogue | |||
| 1981 | Four Fruits | 150 numbered copies | ||
| 1981 | Metamorphosis | |||
| 1981 | A Moth Glade | |||
| 1981 | Photography In The Open Air | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1981 | Ruin Wood | Laurie Clark | 200 numbered copies | |
| 1981 | Sixteen Sonnets | |||
| 1981 | Solos, Duets & Quartets | Simon Cutts | Laurie Clark | 125 signed and numbered copies |
| 1981 | The Tapestry | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1981 | Three Triolets | |||
| 1982 | A Dedication | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1982 | By Footpath & Stile | (no text) | Laurie Clark | 300 copies |
| 1982 | For Returning Warriors /In Memoriam | |||
| 1982 | Geum Rivale | Laurie Clark | 200 numbered copies | |
| 1982 | The Lacemaker | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1982 | Wayward Definitions | Laurie Clark | 200 copies; expanded edition published as "Vagrant Definitions" by Membrane Press, Shorewood, WI, 1984 | |
| 1982 | Three Colours | 200 numbered colours | ||
| 1982 | Moschatel Press | Stuart Mills | Laurie Clark | Essay for University of Warwick Library exhibition of books, cards and prints by Thomas A. Clark and Laurie Clark |
| 1982 | Twenty Four Sentences About The Forest | |||
| 1982 | Under The Brae | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1983 | In A Country Churchyard | (no text) | Laurie Clark | 200 copies |
| 1983 | Pauses and Digressions | Laurie Clark | 300 copies of which 12 are signed and hand-coloured | |
| 1983 | The Blue Boat, No. 1 | Robert Lax | Laurie Clark | Published as an occasional magazine |
| 1983 | The Blue Boat, No. 2 | Jean Follain | ||
| 1984 | Far Oak Ridge | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1985 | On Greta Bridge | Published jointly with Underwich Editions, Canada; 500 copies | ||
| 1986 | The Idle Road | Laurie Clark | 250 copies of which 20 are signed and hand-coloured | |
| 1987 | Six Triolets | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1989 | Through White Villages | |||
| 1989 | The Flowers of Ben Lawers | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1990 | Coire Fhionn Lochan | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1990 | From Sea To Sea | |||
| 1991 | Forest, Mountain, City | |||
| 1991 | The Philosophy Of Furniture | Simon Cutts | Laurie Clark | |
| 1991 | The Teachings of Huang Po | |||
| 1992 | Of Shade And Shadow | |||
| 1992 | On A Line From Yeats | |||
| 1993 | A Collect | |||
| 1994 | Gold And Silver | Laurie Clark | Christmas Card | |
| 1994 | Larch Covert | |||
| 1995 | Apples And Intervals | |||
| 1995 | Glade | |||
| 1995 | The Shape Changer | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1995 | Three Exercises | |||
| 1995 | Two Landscapes | |||
| 1996 | Morning, Evening | |||
| 1997 | A Standard Of Music | Laurie Clark | ||
| 1997 | An Interval | |||
| 1997 | May The Best Hour | |||
| 1997 | Taking Up Again | |||
| 1997 | Three Wishes | |||
| 1997 | A Melting of Snowflakes | Christmas Card | ||
| 1998 | At Dusk & At Dawn | |||
| 1998 | Four Greetings | Laurie Clark | Christmas Card | |
| 1999 | Forest Without Trees | |||
| 1999 | Shieling In The Brambles | |||
| 1999 | Stone | |||
| 1999 | Here is Rosemary | Laurie Clark | Christmas Card | |
| 2000 | Branches and Quinces | Christmas Card | ||
| 2001 | Twelve Proverbs | Laurie Clark | ||
| 2001 | Sparrows | Laurie Clark | Christmas Card | |
| 2004 | Gorse River Sequence | Laurie Clark | for Peter Larkin | |
| 2004 | The Year Of The Water Rail | Laurie Clark | ||
| 2005 | Frost & Snow | Laurie Clark | for Richard Valentine (Secondhand Bookseller, Nailsworth) | |
| 2005 | Harebell | Laurie Clark | ||
| 2006 | Blue | |||
| 2006 | Hazel Wood | |||
| 2006 | Wild Strawberries | Laurie Clark | ||
| 2007 | Dusk | |||
| 2007 | Floating Island | |||
| 2007 | Flow | |||
| 2007 | Little Burn | |||
| 2007 | Four Fruits (2) | |||
| 2007 | In The Black Wood | |||
| 2007 | Tràigh Balla | |||
| 2007 | Whenever You Linger | |||
| 2006/7 | Postcards | set of 6 | ||
| 2008 | Colour in the island | |||
| 2008 | From Many Waters | |||
| 2008 | Learning to be Blue | |||
| 2008 | of Woods & Water | |||
| 2008 | Sgiath nan Tarmachan | |||
| 2008 | Some Imaginary Flowers | for Eck | ||
| 2008 | Spring Summer | |||
| 2008 | Still Life with Fruit and Flower | |||
| 2008 | Taste is to Whisk | |||
| 2009 | A Lamp of Fish Oil | Christmas Card | ||
| 2010 | Sylviidae | Laurie Clark | ||
| 2010 | Delight; Fragrance; Thrift | Laurie Clark | 3 card set | |
| 2010 | Suspicion of Beauty | Laurie Clark | 5 card set | |
| 2010/2011 | Leave-Taking; Clearing; Crocus | Laurie Clark | 3 card set | |
| 2011 | Dipper | Laurie Clark | ||
| 2011 | Mint | |||
| 2011 | Unfolding Brightness | Christmas Card | ||
| 2012 | Gaelic Flowers | |||
| 2013 | Jay | Laurie Clark | ||
| 2014 | The Grove Of Delight | |||
| 2015 | Mist & Mountain | Laurie Clark | ||
| 2015 | The Quiet Island | Laurie Clark | ||
| 2015 | With | Laurie Clark | ||
| 2016 | Dove | |||
| 2016 | Star of Bethlehem | Christmas Card | ||
| 2017 | The Fort Of Stillness | |||
| undated | An Lochan Uaine | |||
| undated | An Affinity Of Eye And Petal | Laurie Clark | ||
| undated | Adoxa | Printed in Fife |
Related publications
editOther published works by Thomas A. Clark include:
- Bo Heem E Um No.1 - Poems/Editor - Greenock, 1966. (Includes two concrete poems by Dom Sylvester Houédard)
- ARC 8 (number 15) - Arc, Gillingham, Kent, 1970
- Some Particulars - The Jargon Society, 1971
- Epitaphs for Lorine - The Jargon Society, 1973
- Pointing Still - Arc Publications, Gillingham, Kent, 1974
- A Still Life - The Jargon Society, Dentdale 1977
- Arrangement In A Blue Jug - Arnica Press, 1977 (frontispiece by Laurie Clark; 100 signed and numbered copies of which 50 on hand-made paper, 50 on Hochu paper)
- Fragments Of A Walled Garden - Braad Editions, Bretenoux, France, 1977 (illustrations by Laurie Clark; 275 copies of which 26 are signed and numbered)
- Pebbles From A Japanese Garden - Topia Press, New York, 1977 (illustrations by Laurie Clark; 200 copies of which 26 are signed)
- Poetry Information, 18 - Interview by Glyn Pursglove - Peter Hodgkins, London, 1977
- A Ruskin Sketchbook - Coracle Press, London, 1979 (500 copies)
- The Pocket Glade Dictionary - Coach House Press, Toronto, 1980 (300 copies)
- Madder Lake - Coach House Press, Toronto, 1981
- A Garden In The Hills / Un Jardin sur les Monts - Atelier de l'Agneau, Herstal, Belgium, 1981
- Review No 17 - Aggie Weston's, 1981 (with cover illustration by Laurie Clark)
- The Brothers - New Arcadian's Journal no. 8 - New Arcadians, Bradford, 1982 (with illustration by Laurie Clark; 250 numbered copies)
- Adventures Among Birds - Chocolate News Books, Camberwell, 1982 (200 copies)
- In The Open Air - screen prints by John Christie - Circle Press, Guildford, 1982
- Ways Through Bracken - The Jargon Society, 1983
- Twenty Poems - Grosseteste, 1983
- In Praise Of Walking - Cairn Gallery, Nailsworth, 1988 (reprinted 1977 by Walking Bird Press and East Coast Trail Association, Newfoundland, 1977 in 500 numbered copies)
- Riasg Buidhe - with Roger Ackling, 1987
- The Homecoming - Prest Roots Press, Kenilworth, 1988
- Silences of Noons, The Work of F L Griggs (1876-1938) - Exhibition Catalogue - Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, 1988
- Dwellings & Habitations - Prest Roots Press, Kenilworth, 1993
- that which appears - Paragon Press, London, 1994 (250 signed copies, 100 with woodcut by Ian McKeever)
- Clashconnachie - Sad Iron Press, 1998
- One Hundred Scottish Places - Parnassus Press, Eindhoven, 1999 (250 copies)
- Exchanges - with Ian Hamilton Finlay - Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999 (illustrations by Laurie Clark)
- Poet's Poems No. 1 - (Editor) - Aggie Weston's Editions, 2000
- Distance & Proximity - Pocketbooks; Morning Star Publications; Polygon; Taigh Chearsabhagh; National Galleries of Scotland, 2000
- The Path to the Sea - Arc Publications, Todmorden, 2005
- Doire Fhearna - Empty Hands Broadside #8 - Country Valley Press, Gardnerville, NV (100 copies of which 26 are signed)
- I den klare lufta - Nordsjøforlaget, Norway, 2007
- Grey - Longhouse, Green River VT, 2007
- The Hundred Thousand Places - Carcanet Press, 2008
- The Hidden Place - site specific wall painting at Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, 2010; also issued as screen print - 100 signed and numbered copies
- Yellow & Blue - Carcanet Press, 2014
- Shade - Corbel Stone Press, 2014 (illustrations by Laurie Clark; 60 copies plus 12 signed and numbered with hand-coloured illustration)
- Farm By The Shore - Carcanet Press, 2017
Other publications featuring drawings by Laurie Clark include:
- A Walk Round Stroud - Stroud Civic Society, 1980
- The Englishwoman's Garden - Chatto & Windus, 1980
- A Country Lane - with Ian Hamilton Finlay - Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
- The Englishman's Garden - Penguin, 1985
- Docking Competitions - with Erica Van Horn - Coracle, Docking, Norfolk, 1995
- In A Dark Wood - Exhibition at Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, November 1994 to January 1995
- Parnassus Parnassia - Parnassus Press, Eindhoven, 1998
- 100 Buttercups - WAX366; Fife Contemporary Art & Craft, 2010. Special Editions lettered A-Z include unique pencil drawing.
- 100 Harebells - 2012
References
edit- ^ Scottish Poetry Library (c. 2006). "Poets' A-Z " Thomas A Clark". Scottish Poetry Library. Archived from the original on 11 June 2007. Retrieved 15 February 2007.
- ^ a b "Thomas A. Clark | Poetry | Scottish Poetry Library". www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
- ^ Elizabeth James (c. 2001). "Laurie Clark: Fourteen days in North Uist" (PDF). Visual Research Centre. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 February 2006. Retrieved 15 February 2007.
- ^ Peter Finch, ed. (1974). "Small press scene : received late". Second Aeon. 19–21 (Final issue). Retrieved 18 February 2006.
- ^ COPAC (2007). "COPAC brief record display : Search terms: Moschatel Press, Scotland" (Database search result (HTML)). COPAC. Retrieved 18 February 2007.
- ^ For an on-line example of their themes see: Clark, Thomas A. (2007). "Thomas A. Clark". Thomas A. Clark. Archived from the original (FLASH) on 11 February 2007. Retrieved 18 February 2007.
- ^ Poetry, Oxford. "Oxford Poetry — Since 1910". www.oxfordpoetry.co.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
- ^ Some Particulars. Millerton, NY and Bletchley, Bucks: The Jargon Society. 1971. pp. End Cover.
- ^ "Thomas A Clark – New Stobhill Hospital Glasgow". peterfoolen.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2017.