Welcome to Addison, one of England's last handmade book publishing houses and home of beautiful, collectable handcrafted books

Since the fourth century BC, the written word has been passed down in various forms. Long before the invention of printing, the early Gospels were hand written on parchment and, as in the case of the eighth century Lindisfarne Gospels and The Book of Kells, they were illustrated and the folios were bound between wooden boards for protection. By the fifteenth century workshops were being established in European capitals to fulfil commissions from wealthy patrons who wanted their priceless manuscripts to be embellished with gold leaf.

Letterpress printing changed the distribution of information to the increasing population of readers. The advance in copper plate printing, which culminated after British naturalist Sir Joseph Banks' explorative circumnavigation with Captain Cook from 1768-1771, enabled a text to accompany images. From the eighteenth century onwards, Europeans were able to see hand coloured depictions of flora and fauna from the Americas, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand as exacting and enlightening as the voyages of discovery that presented these new publishing opportunities.

Today, through collaboration with skilled traditional British craftsmen including printers, book binders, paper makers, artists and designers, Addison is continuing to sustain a heritage of rare fine art printing through the creation of world-class handcrafted books of unsurpassed quality that can be bound to a collector’s own requirements.