James Weld Towne. Pioneer San Francisco Printer, Publisher and Paper Purveyor.

San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 2008 Book. Fine. Hardcover. First edition. One of 275 copies designed and typeset by Patrick Reagh. Small quarto. xiii, [1], 214pp. 31 photographic illustrations, many in color, including portraits, views, numerous title pages and facsimiles, etc. Notes, appendices, index. Purple linen lettered in copper with acetate jacket. A very fine copy. An in-depth study of Towne (1829-1917), one of San Francisco's earliest and most influential commercial printers. Towne produced an enormous volume of printed material in San Francisco during the period 1853-1868 including Hutchings' Illustrated California Magazine, Cronise's The Natural Wealth of California, and much more. This work is the first monograph on the subject, based on unique 19th century San Francisco business archives. The exhaustive list of Towne imprints in the Appendices is very important and useful. Original announcement laid in..