It’s been wonderful to see more and more of our vision for our letterpress-printed edition of Peter Pan come to life as development continues. However, we encountered a few speed bumps along the way and now expect to be shipping in the fall this year. We apologize for this delay, but are more confident than ever that you will be proud to have Peter Pan as part of your collection when it’s ready.

Our work would not be possible without the support of those who place preorders, and we are deeply thankful for that. As an expression of our gratitude, we will be letterpress printing a Peter Pan broadside and providing one for free to each person who has already placed a preorder and those who place one before 11:59pm ET on Thursday April 26th. A limited number will also be for sale at a later date for $75 each.

It features Charles’ iconic take of young Peter Pan from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, which graces the front boards of the Deluxe and Lettered states, along with one of our favourite passages from the book, reproduced here:

‌Peter’s heart was so glad that he felt he ‌must sing all day long, just as the birds sing for joy, but, ‌being partly human, he needed an instrument, so he ‌made a pipe of reeds, and he used to sit by the shore of the island of an evening, practising the sough of the wind and the ripple of the water, and catching handfuls of the shine of the moon, and he put them all in his pipe and played them so beautifully that even the birds were deceived...

It is set in Mrs. Eaves and Gill Sans, with the decorative capital in Ivory, which is used on the spine of the Lettered state. Printing will begin after the final print run is known, but here is a mockup of what it will look like:

The paper is a luxurious handmade 300gsm made from 100% cotton rags with deckled edges on all sides. The broadside will be printed in the coming weeks right here at Conversation Tree Press in our workshop. In the meanwhile, the paper arrived yesterday and is acclimatizing in the workshop. 

As shared in previous Peter Pan updates, the paper has already been delivered to Pat Randle, our printer; the colophon sheets are with Charles Vess for signing and remarquing (Lettered copies only) in between producing wonderful artwork for the edition; and proofs of the interior layout and artwork have already been printed. With the final pieces of pen and ink artwork recently completed, the next steps are to finalize the layout, have the magnesium plates made and then print.

Pictured above - an early sketch from Charles Vess for a piece that will eventually become a full colour plate.

Work continues on a number of other projects, some of which have previously been mentioned, but preorders will not begin for future books until they are much further along.

Again, we appreciate your patience, faith, and support.

Tony