| AdminHistory | William Ridler (1909-1980) was born and brought up at Kings Norton, outside Birmingham, a city for which he never lost his affection. It was there that an early love of fine books was nurtured by Herbert Woodbine, then Librarian of the Birmingham Central Reference Library. Later influences came from Leonard Jay, head of the Birmingham School of Printing, whom he met in 1943, and from W.T. Wiggins-Davies, one time Mayor of the City and owner of the Bracebridge Press. At some unknown date he struck up an acquaintanceship with James Guthrie, artist and owner of the Pear Tree Press, with whom he corresponded for some years. Later, as an antique dealer in Oxford, he met John Johnson, former printer to the Oxford University Press, who was then amassing printed ephemera for his well known collection which is now in the Bodleian Library. Will[iam] kept a look out for suitable pieces which came his way and handed them on to Johnson whose kindly encouragement spurred him to greater efforts in his own collecting.
It was not until the second half of the 1960s and the 1970s, in a period of greater personal affluence, that he set about improving the scope of his collection in earnest. Most of his free time was spent poring over catalogues issued by dealers or auction houses and corresponding with a number of booksellers prominent in the field with whom he habitually dealt. Over the years he gathered about him possibly the most extensive collection of private press material and other fine printing ever garnered by a private individual. Its great strength lies in the breadth of its scope, and it is this aspect which renders it of particular value to the student and scholar. The core consists of works from British presses from Kelmscott to the mid 1940s, though it does include examples from a few earlier presses and also from a number of later presses whose work he particularly admired or which came to him by gift. Many of these are copies personally autographed for him by their printers.
The collection is a rich mine for anyone interested in the work of minor presses and the byways of printing history. It contains virtually the total output of the Boar's Head Press and the Beaumont Press, to name but two examples. Collections of several major presses were augmented late in his life. When he died in 1980, he had a complete set of books from the Gregynog Press, an almost complete set of Daniel Press books, and his Kelmscott collection lacked only the magnificent Chaucer. In addition, he sought to acquire one or more books from each American press of note and from the major Dutch and German presses. Another field in which he collected fairly assiduously was that of British schools of printing, on which he had planned to write a book. There is almost a complete set of pieces produced at the Birmingham School of Printing between 1826 and 1953.
Though he never sought deliberately after copies printed on vellum or in fine bindings, he was careful to collect copies in good state. [...]
After Ridler moved to Oxford, he developed an interest in bibliographical compilation and produced the first list of books printed at the Boar's Head Press. He contributed significantly to Will Ransom's Select Check Lists of Press Books, though sadly his assistance was never acknowledged in print. In the late 1960s he devoted much of his time to updating entries in this work in addition to Ransom's Private Presses and Their Books and Tomkinson's A Select Bibliography of the Principal Modern Presses. The result was his British Modern Press Books: a descriptive check list of unrecorded items, published in 1971 and enlarged and updated in 1975. He compiled a check list of books illustrated by Jean de Bosschère which was ; published in The Private Library, Second Series 4:3, 1971 and contributed articles to The Antiquarian Book Monthly Review between 1976 and 1980. Ridler also spent time writing fiction. His two published novels are The Buttered Side, Hutchinson 1960, set in a fictional Reacester closely reflecting the Birmingham of his youth, and The Knocker, The Tallis Press, 1966.
Text written by Dorothy A Harrop from 'The William Ridler Collection Catalogue' published by Birmingham City Council Public Libraries 1989. |