THE DOVES PRESS WAS FOUNDED IN 1900 by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, in partnership with photo-engraver Emery Walker, in Hammersmith, London. During nearly seventeen years of operation, the Doves Press produced some of the finest & most notable examples of twentieth century typography.

The distinguishing & most celebrated feature of its books was a specially devised fount of metal type, known variously as Doves Roman, the Doves Press Fount of Type, or simply the Doves Type.

When the partnership was formally dissolved in 1909, a settlement was proposed whereby the two men would share the type; Cobden-Sanderson could retain its exclusive use to continue printing Doves Press publications until his death, whereupon ownership would then pass to Walker.

Nonetheless, after the Doves Press was closed in 1917, an epitaph appeared in the press’s final publication announcing that Cobden-Sanderson had ‘bequeathed’ the type to the bed of the River Thames. Read more about the Doves Type history.