Captain Cook’s Florilegium published by the Lion and Unicorn Press

c.1973

A printing press was established at the RCA in 1953 at the time of Richard Guyatt. The Lion & Unicorn Press was an enterprise where through publishing printed volumes of the ‘highest standards of book production in typographic design, illustration and binding’ it would seek to ‘discover and foster new ability and new ideas in each field’1. Two years prior to Jock Kinneir joining the College, what turned out to be a 12 year project2 had begun. The colophon of the ‘standard’ Florilegium issue reads:

Designed by Jock Kinneir and produced by the Lion and Unicorn Press, at the School of Graphic Design, Royal College of Art, London under the supervision of Joy Law.

Text © 1973 Wilfrid Blunt and William T. Stearn. Handset in 24pt Baskerville by Alfred Page and printed by Harold Greenaway and Michael Perry, Royal College of Art.

Plates © 1973 the trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), London. Printed by Thomas Ross and Son Limited, London and Michael Rand, Royal College of Art from the original engravings.

Both text and places printed on Crisbrooke handmade paper by Zaehnsdorf Limited, London and Edward Robbins, Royal College of Art.

The edition is limited to one hundred numbered copies.

Captain Cook’s Florilegium was published in 1973 of 100 ‘standard’ copies, and ten ‘special’ copies. It was followed in 1976 by Captain Cook’s Florilegium: A note on its production by Joy Law of 175 copies.


  1. https://www.rca.ac.uk/more/about-rca/our-history/college-history/lion-unicorn-press/ ↩︎

  2. Mick Perry, 25.2.2019 ↩︎

Added 21.02.19; Updated 01.10.19