Rampant Lions Press
The Rampant Lions Press was a fine letterpress printing firm in Britain, operating from 1924 to 2008. The firm was founded by Will Carter (24 September 1912 – 17 March 2001), publishing its first book in 1936, and was continued by his son, Sebastian Carter (b. 1941), from 1966.
Rampant Lions Press
- Name
- Rampant Lions Press
- Founded
- 1924
- Headquarters
- Cambridge
- Activity
- printing
- Products
- letterpress printing · limited edition
- Dissolved
- 2008
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Documentary summary
The Rampant Lions Press was a fine letterpress printing firm in Britain, operating from 1924 to 2008. The firm was founded by Will Carter (24 September 1912 – 17 March 2001), publishing its first book in 1936, and was continued by his son, Sebastian Carter (b. 1941), from 1966.
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Documentary evidence
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gnd · 6060304-5 · wikidata · Q7290011 · wikipedia · Rampant Lions Press
In this article
Overview
Overview
It is associated with United Kingdom. The record gives 1924 as its date of establishment or first appearance. Activity is recorded as ending in 2008. Its recorded seat is Cambridge. The recorded field of activity is printing. Recorded products are letterpress printing and limited edition.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Rampant Lions Press • Industry — Letterpress printing • Founder — Will Carter • Defunct — 2008 • Hq Location City — Cambridge, England • Key People — Sebastian Carter
History
History
Rampant Lions started life as a private press in 1924, when Will Carter was still a schoolboy. After the war, his interest in printing was such that he decided to try to establish the Press on a commercial footing, and did so in Cambridge in 1949. From that date until the formal closure of the Press at the end of 2008, Rampant Lions has been among the most highly regarded letterpress printing-offices in Britain. The skills of Will and Sebastian Carter in design and press-work have been recognized by publishers, who commissioned work from them. Their skills have also been recognized by collectors, who have sought out their publications since the 1950s. Sebastian Carter also has an international reputation as a writer on type and typography and is the author of several books, including in 2013 The Rampant Lion Press: A Narrative Catalogue. Besides printing, Carter also designed two fonts for Monotype, Klang and Octavian, the latter with David Kindersley. He also designed signage and a font for Dartmouth College, where he was artist-in-residence for a time.
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The following is established of the heading itself. Recorded from 1924. Institutional cataloguing adds that rampant Lions Press is associated with United Kingdom.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- United Kingdom
Legacy
At the Fitzwilliam Museum from 18 March to 18 May 2014, the exhibition The Rampant Lions Press: A Letterpress Odyssey took place, featuring books published since 1982, when the press had been the subject of a retrospective exhibition there, celebrating A Printing Workshop Through Five Decades. The retrospective Will Carter: Man of Letters took place at the Lettering Arts Centre, Snape Maltings, Suffolk, in April 2022, and subsequently at the Robert Cripps Gallery, Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 6060304-5, Rampant Lions Press.
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
reference work
- “Rampant Lions Press”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q7290011: Rampant Lions Press
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Carter, Will. Some observations of a small printer. Monotype Recorder. 40. 2. 9–24. Summer 1954.
- 2.Rogers, Timothy. Will Carter obituary. The Guardian. 22 March 2001.
- 3.History, The Rampant Lions Press.
- 4.Internet Archive. Sebastian Carter. Open Library.
- 5.Randle, John. Men of Letters – Bibliography. TLS.
- 6.Klang MT. MyFonts.
- 7.Octavian MT. MyFonts.
- 8."Exhibition: Will Carter and the Dartmouth Typeface – The story of the development of the letterforms that became known as the Dartmouth typeface". Dartmouth College, 21 March 2018.
- 9.The Fitzwilliam Museum. The Rampant Lions Press: A Letterpress Odyssey. 2014.
- 10.The Lettering Arts Trust. Will Carter Retrospective.
- 11.Bignell, Eric. The Lettering Arts Trust presents – Will Carter: Man of Letters. Stone Specialist. 29 April 2022.
- 12.Will Carter - Man of Letters. The Lettering Arts Trust.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- Carter, Sebastian, et al. The Rampant Lions Press: a printing workshop through five decades (Rampant Lions, Cambridge, 1982). (paperback), (cased).
- Carter, Sebastian, "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: Closing the Rampant Lions Press Workshop", in Parenthesis; 19 (Autumn 2010), pp. 9–11.
- Carter, Sebastian, The Rampant Lion Press: A Narrative Catalogue, New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2013 (208 pages).
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 6060304-5, Rampant Lions Press.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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