A63. Aesop’s Frog Fables

A63. Aesop. Aesop’s Frog Fables. Santa Cruz, California: Peter & Donna Thomas, 1990.

20.5 x 14 cm (8” x 5 ½”), 24 pages, 50 copies.

Binding: Full-bound in green suede. Title in green on cover. End sheets green. Housed in green paper slipcase. Title in green or gold on cover. Paper: Green or turquoise, handmade by Peter Thomas. Printing: Letterpress. Typography: Linotype Caledonia and hand set Neuland; titles in green. Illustration: Reproductions of nine line drawings by Donna Thomas. Two frog-shaped leaves bound in.

“The text is my adaptation of the seven Aesops’ fables featuring frogs. We originally had the type cast on a Linotype machine by Felica Rice, then we printed one copy (all on frog shaped pieces of paper with original watercolors by Donna) for Constance Hunter to bind as a one-of-a-kind frog shaped book for a Guild of Book Workers exhibition. When that project was done we still had the type and wanted to make better use of it. We also had a few spare pieces of paper but really didn’t want to make an edition of frog shaped books so made it rectangular but included a sheet of the frog shaped paper. We used that paper to obscure the colophon, which we had placed following the title page, in homage to the English fine press books we were studying at the time. Like printing a title on the