Moschatel Press

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Moschatel Press is a small press publisher producing artist's books and poetry collections.{{cite web

| author = Scottish Poetry Library

| author-link = Scottish Poetry Library

| title = Poets' A-Z " Thomas A Clark

| publisher = Scottish Poetry Library

| date = c. 2006

| url = http://www.spl.org.uk/poets_a-z/clark.html

| access-date = February 15, 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070611071831/http://www.spl.org.uk/poets_a-z/clark.html

| archive-date = June 11, 2007

| url-status = dead

}} It was founded in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, in 1973, by the artist Laurie Clark and the Scottish poet Thomas A. Clark and moved to Pittenweem, Fife in 2002.{{Cite web|url=http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poetry/poets/thomas-clark|title=Thomas A. Clark {{!}} Poetry {{!}} Scottish Poetry Library|website=www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2017-08-05}} The press "is named after adoxa moschatellina, a plant known locally as Town Clock for its four-way green flower heads, with a fifth flower facing the sky."{{cite web|author=Elizabeth James |title=Laurie Clark: Fourteen days in North Uist |publisher=Visual Research Centre |date=c. 2001 |url=http://www.vrc.dundee.ac.uk/CAB/PDF/laurie_clark_essay.pdf |format=PDF |access-date=February 15, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060223194141/http://www.vrc.dundee.ac.uk/CAB/pdf/laurie_clark_essay.pdf |archive-date=February 23, 2006 }} Their main line is in "publishing minimal texts, visual poetry and the like in small neat booklets and postcards."{{cite journal

| editor = Peter Finch

| year = 1974

| title = Small press scene : received late

| journal = Second Aeon

| volume = 19-21

| issue = Final issue

| url = http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=18240

| access-date = 2006-02-18

}}

They have published work by Ian Hamilton Finlay among other artists; although most of their output is their own work{{cite web

| author = COPAC

| author-link = COPAC

| title = COPAC brief record display : Search terms: Moschatel Press, Scotland

| publisher = COPAC

| year = 2007

| url = http://copac.ac.uk/wzgw?form=A%2FT&id=10621352&au=&cau=&ti=&pub=Moschatel+Press&isn=&date=&lang=&lib=scotland&fs=Search

| format = Database search result (HTML)

| access-date = February 18, 2007

}} which frequently consists of reflections on nature.For an on-line example of their themes see: {{cite web

| last = Clark

| first = Thomas A.

| author-link = Thomas A. Clark (poet)

| title = Thomas A. Clark

| publisher = Thomas A. Clark

| year = 2007

| url = http://www.thomasaclark.co.uk

| format = FLASH

| access-date = February 18, 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070211041038/http://www.thomasaclark.co.uk/

| archive-date = February 11, 2007

| url-status = dead

}} A treadle press they were given as a wedding present inspired the founding of Moschatel Press, allowing them to print poems and send them to friends.{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordpoetry.co.uk/interviews.php?int=vii3_thomasaclark|title=Oxford Poetry — Since 1910|last=Poetry|first=Oxford|website=www.oxfordpoetry.co.uk|access-date=2017-08-05}} The treadle press was replaced by a tabletop Adana printing press.

Founders

Thomas A. Clark was born in Greenock, Scotland in 1944 and left school, "barely literate", at 15. He then worked in factories and warehouses for the next eight year, before realising "there was a world outside to be lived in".{{Cite book|title=Some Particulars|publisher=The Jargon Society|year=1971|location=Millerton, NY and Bletchley, Bucks|pages=End Cover}}

Clark moved to England in 1967.

Laurie Clark was born in New York in 1949 and married Thomas A. Clark in 1972.

Cairn Gallery

In 1986 the Clarks established the Cairn Gallery initially in Days Mill, Nailsworth, and subsequently in Pittenweem. The Gallery an artist-run space, for land art, minimalism and lyrical or poetic conceptualism.

Publications

The list of publications is first derived from the Moschatel Press Bibliography published by the press itself for an exhibition at the Coracle Press, Camberwell, from 1 December 1979 to 5 January 1980. The list of subsequent publications is not definitive. All works are by Thomas A. Clark unless otherwise stated.

A box set of 67 publications was issued in 1982. Further collections were issued as "A Box Of Landscapes" in 2010 and 2016, comprising publications spanning forty years of the Moschatel Press and others.

In addition to his work with Moschatel Press, Thomas A. Clark led a group of artists installing artworks in the new Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow for its opening in 2009.{{Cite web|title=Thomas A Clark – New Stobhill Hospital Glasgow|url=http://peterfoolen.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/thomas-clark-new-stobhill-hospital_08.html|access-date=2017-08-04|website=peterfoolen.blogspot.co.uk}}

class="wikitable sortable"

!Publication Year

!Title

!Author

!Artist

!Notes

1973

|Fill In The Drawing

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1973

|Fritillary

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1973

|Folding The Last Sheep

|

|

|Publication year not printed

1973

|An Epitaph

|

|

|

1973

|The Garden

|

|

|

1974

|Horizon

|

|

|

1974

|Four Flowers

|

|

|

1974

|A Wee Tot For Catullus

|Jonathan Williams

|

|

1974

|Snowdrop

|Ian Hamilton Finlay

|

|Publication year not printed

1974

|Iris

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1974

|Shape & Shade

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1974

|September

|

|

|Publication year not printed

1974

|Not Now

|Cid Corman

|

|

1974

|A Basket of Landscapes

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1974

|Pebbles

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1975

|Glade

|

|

|

1975

|Deserts of Afghanistan

|

|Helen Williams

|

1975

|L'Invitation Au Voyage

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1975

|Anemone

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1975

|Moss Stitch

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1975

|A Vase Of Daffodils

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1976

|Petits Fours

|

|

|

1976

|Painted Lady

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1976

|Two Horizons

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1976

|Clare's "Journey Out Of Essex"

|Simon Cutts

|Laurie Clark

|

1976

|Thrums

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1976

|Hart's Tongue

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1977

|Foliations

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1977

|Two Acres

|

|

|

1977

|The Bright Glade

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1977

|A Meadow Voyage

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1977

|Haystacks and Islands

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1978

|Nine Roses

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1978

|Fly Patterns For Still Waters

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1978

|Gatherings

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1978

|Water Cresses

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1978

|Quatrefoils

|

|Laurie Clark

|Printed for South West Review; publication year not printed

1979

|After Pissarro

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1979

|Two Evergreen Horizons

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1979

|A Glade Of Lances

|

|

|

1979

|The Dappled Glade

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1979

|Style

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1979

|Of Leaves

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1979

|Proverbs Of The Meadow

|

|Laurie Clark

|Publication year not printed

1979

|Four English Flowers

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1979

|From A Glossary Of Old Scots

|

|

|

1979

|Moschatel Press Bibliography

|with introduction by Alan Tucker

|Laurie Clark

|600 copies

1979

|A Rock Pool

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1979

|In The Scottish Lowlands

|

|

|

1979

|A Short Tour of the Highlands

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1979

|The Frog Leaps Thirteen Times

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1980

|Four Horizons

|

|

|

1980

|Tansy Buttons

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1980

|A Herb Garden

|

|

|250 signed and numbered copies

1980

|Adjectives For Grasses

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1980

|Proverbs Of The Mountain

|

|Laurie Clark

|300 signed and numbered copies

1980

|Parenthetical Land

|

|Laurie Clark

|Card for opening of Alan & Joan Tucker's new bookshop, Stroud, Glos

1981

|A Delphinium Border

|

|

|200 numbered copies

1981

|Dicotyledons

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1981

|From A Bookseller's Catalogue

|

|

|

1981

|Four Fruits

|

|

|150 numbered copies

1981

|Metamorphosis

|

|

|

1981

|A Moth Glade

|

|

|

1981

|Photography In The Open Air

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1981

|Ruin Wood

|

|Laurie Clark

|200 numbered copies

1981

|Sixteen Sonnets

|

|

|

1981

|Solos, Duets & Quartets

|Simon Cutts

|Laurie Clark

|125 signed and numbered copies

1981

|The Tapestry

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1981

|Three Triolets

|

|

|

1982

|A Dedication

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1982

|By Footpath & Stile

|(no text)

|Laurie Clark

|300 copies

1982

|For Returning Warriors /In Memoriam

|

|

|

1982

|Geum Rivale

|

|Laurie Clark

|200 numbered copies

1982

|The Lacemaker

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1982

|Wayward Definitions

|

|Laurie Clark

|200 copies; expanded edition published as "Vagrant Definitions" by Membrane Press, Shorewood, WI, 1984

1982

|Three Colours

|

|

|200 numbered colours

1982

|Moschatel Press

|Stuart Mills

|Laurie Clark

|Essay for University of Warwick Library exhibition of books, cards and prints by Thomas A. Clark and Laurie Clark

1982

|Twenty Four Sentences About The Forest

|

|

|

1982

|Under The Brae

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1983

|In A Country Churchyard

|(no text)

|Laurie Clark

|200 copies

1983

|Pauses and Digressions

|

|Laurie Clark

|300 copies of which 12 are signed and hand-coloured

1983

|The Blue Boat, No. 1

|Robert Lax

|Laurie Clark

|Published as an occasional magazine

1983

|The Blue Boat, No. 2

|Jean Follain

|

|

1984

|Far Oak Ridge

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1985

|On Greta Bridge

|

|

|Published jointly with Underwich Editions, Canada; 500 copies

1986

|The Idle Road

|

|Laurie Clark

|250 copies of which 20 are signed and hand-coloured

1987

|Six Triolets

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1989

|Through White Villages

|

|

|

1989

|The Flowers of Ben Lawers

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1990

|Coire Fhionn Lochan

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1990

|From Sea To Sea

|

|

|

1991

|Forest, Mountain, City

|

|

|

1991

|The Philosophy Of Furniture

|Simon Cutts

|Laurie Clark

|

1991

|The Teachings of Huang Po

|

|

|

1992

|Of Shade And Shadow

|

|

|

1992

|On A Line From Yeats

|

|

|

1993

|A Collect

|

|

|

1994

|Gold And Silver

|

|Laurie Clark

|Christmas Card

1994

|Larch Covert

|

|

|

1995

|Apples And Intervals

|

|

|

1995

|Glade

|

|

|

1995

|The Shape Changer

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1995

|Three Exercises

|

|

|

1995

|Two Landscapes

|

|

|

1996

|Morning, Evening

|

|

|

1997

|A Standard Of Music

|

|Laurie Clark

|

1997

|An Interval

|

|

|

1997

|May The Best Hour

|

|

|

1997

|Taking Up Again

|

|

|

1997

|Three Wishes

|

|

|

1997

|A Melting of Snowflakes

|

|

|Christmas Card

1998

|At Dusk & At Dawn

|

|

|

1998

|Four Greetings

|

|Laurie Clark

|Christmas Card

1999

|Forest Without Trees

|

|

|

1999

|Shieling In The Brambles

|

|

|

1999

|Stone

|

|

|

1999

|Here is Rosemary

|

|Laurie Clark

|Christmas Card

2000

|Branches and Quinces

|

|

|Christmas Card

2001

|Twelve Proverbs

|

|Laurie Clark

|

2001

|Sparrows

|

|Laurie Clark

|Christmas Card

2004

|Gorse River Sequence

|

|Laurie Clark

|for Peter Larkin

2004

|The Year Of The Water Rail

|

|Laurie Clark

|

2005

|Frost & Snow

|

|Laurie Clark

|for Richard Valentine (Secondhand Bookseller, Nailsworth)

2005

|Harebell

|

|Laurie Clark

|

2006

|Blue

|

|

|

2006

|Hazel Wood

|

|

|

2006

|Wild Strawberries

|

|Laurie Clark

|

2007

|Dusk

|

|

|

2007

|Floating Island

|

|

|

2007

|Flow

|

|

|

2007

|Little Burn

|

|

|

2007

|Four Fruits (2)

|

|

|

2007

|In The Black Wood

|

|

|

2007

|Tràigh Balla

|

|

|

2007

|Whenever You Linger

|

|

|

2006/7

|Postcards

|

|

|set of 6

2008

|Colour in the island

|

|

|

2008

|From Many Waters

|

|

|

2008

|Learning to be Blue

|

|

|

2008

|of Woods & Water

|

|

|

2008

|Sgiath nan Tarmachan

|

|

|

2008

|Some Imaginary Flowers

|

|

|for Eck

2008

|Spring Summer

|

|

|

2008

|Still Life with Fruit and Flower

|

|

|

2008

|Taste is to Whisk

|

|

|

2009

|A Lamp of Fish Oil

|

|

|Christmas Card

2010

|Sylviidae

|

|Laurie Clark

|

2010

|Delight; Fragrance; Thrift

|

|Laurie Clark

|3 card set

2010

|Suspicion of Beauty

|

|Laurie Clark

|5 card set

2010/2011

|Leave-Taking; Clearing; Crocus

|

|Laurie Clark

|3 card set

2011

|Dipper

|

|Laurie Clark

|

2011

|Mint

|

|

|

2011

|Unfolding Brightness

|

|

|Christmas Card

2012

|Gaelic Flowers

|

|

|

2013

|Jay

|

|Laurie Clark

|

2014

|The Grove Of Delight

|

|

|

2015

|Mist & Mountain

|

|Laurie Clark

|

2015

|The Quiet Island

|

|Laurie Clark

|

2015

|With

|

|Laurie Clark

|

2016

|Dove

|

|

|

2016

|Star of Bethlehem

|

|

|Christmas Card

2017

|The Fort Of Stillness

|

|

|

undated

|An Lochan Uaine

|

|

|

undated

|An Affinity Of Eye And Petal

|

|Laurie Clark

|

undated

|Adoxa

|

|

|Printed in Fife

Related publications

Other published works by Thomas A. Clark include:

  • Bo Heem E Um No.1 - Poems/Editor - Greenock, 1966. (Includes two concrete poems by Dom Sylvester Houédard)
  • ARC 8 (number 15) - Arc, Gillingham, Kent, 1970
  • Some Particulars - The Jargon Society, 1971
  • Epitaphs for Lorine - The Jargon Society, 1973
  • Pointing Still - Arc Publications, Gillingham, Kent, 1974
  • A Still Life - The Jargon Society, Dentdale 1977
  • Arrangement In A Blue Jug - Arnica Press, 1977 (frontispiece by Laurie Clark; 100 signed and numbered copies of which 50 on hand-made paper, 50 on Hochu paper)
  • Fragments Of A Walled Garden - Braad Editions, Bretenoux, France, 1977 (illustrations by Laurie Clark; 275 copies of which 26 are signed and numbered)
  • Pebbles From A Japanese Garden - Topia Press, New York, 1977 (illustrations by Laurie Clark; 200 copies of which 26 are signed)
  • Poetry Information, 18 - Interview by Glyn Pursglove - Peter Hodgkins, London, 1977
  • A Ruskin Sketchbook - Coracle Press, London, 1979 (500 copies)
  • The Pocket Glade Dictionary - Coach House Press, Toronto, 1980 (300 copies)
  • Madder Lake - Coach House Press, Toronto, 1981
  • A Garden In The Hills / Un Jardin sur les Monts - Atelier de l'Agneau, Herstal, Belgium, 1981
  • Review No 17 - Aggie Weston's, 1981 (with cover illustration by Laurie Clark)
  • The Brothers - New Arcadian's Journal no. 8 - New Arcadians, Bradford, 1982 (with illustration by Laurie Clark; 250 numbered copies)
  • Adventures Among Birds - Chocolate News Books, Camberwell, 1982 (200 copies)
  • In The Open Air - screen prints by John Christie - Circle Press, Guildford, 1982
  • Ways Through Bracken - The Jargon Society, 1983
  • Twenty Poems - Grosseteste, 1983
  • In Praise Of Walking - Cairn Gallery, Nailsworth, 1988 (reprinted 1977 by Walking Bird Press and East Coast Trail Association, Newfoundland, 1977 in 500 numbered copies)
  • Riasg Buidhe - with Roger Ackling, 1987
  • The Homecoming - Prest Roots Press, Kenilworth, 1988
  • Silences of Noons, The Work of F L Griggs (1876-1938) - Exhibition Catalogue - Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, 1988
  • Dwellings & Habitations - Prest Roots Press, Kenilworth, 1993
  • that which appears - Paragon Press, London, 1994 (250 signed copies, 100 with woodcut by Ian McKeever)
  • Clashconnachie - Sad Iron Press, 1998
  • One Hundred Scottish Places - Parnassus Press, Eindhoven, 1999 (250 copies)
  • Exchanges - with Ian Hamilton Finlay - Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999 (illustrations by Laurie Clark)
  • Poet's Poems No. 1 - (Editor) - Aggie Weston's Editions, 2000
  • Distance & Proximity - Pocketbooks; Morning Star Publications; Polygon; Taigh Chearsabhagh; National Galleries of Scotland, 2000
  • The Path to the Sea - Arc Publications, Todmorden, 2005
  • Doire Fhearna - Empty Hands Broadside #8 - Country Valley Press, Gardnerville, NV (100 copies of which 26 are signed)
  • I den klare lufta - Nordsjøforlaget, Norway, 2007
  • Grey - Longhouse, Green River VT, 2007
  • The Hundred Thousand Places - Carcanet Press, 2008
  • The Hidden Place - site specific wall painting at Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, 2010; also issued as screen print - 100 signed and numbered copies
  • Yellow & Blue - Carcanet Press, 2014
  • Shade - Corbel Stone Press, 2014 (illustrations by Laurie Clark; 60 copies plus 12 signed and numbered with hand-coloured illustration)
  • Farm By The Shore - Carcanet Press, 2017

Other publications featuring drawings by Laurie Clark include:

  • A Walk Round Stroud - Stroud Civic Society, 1980
  • The Englishwoman's Garden - Chatto & Windus, 1980
  • A Country Lane - with Ian Hamilton Finlay - Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
  • The Englishman's Garden - Penguin, 1985
  • Docking Competitions - with Erica Van Horn - Coracle, Docking, Norfolk, 1995
  • In A Dark Wood - Exhibition at Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, November 1994 to January 1995
  • Parnassus Parnassia - Parnassus Press, Eindhoven, 1998
  • 100 Buttercups - WAX366; Fife Contemporary Art & Craft, 2010. Special Editions lettered A-Z include unique pencil drawing.
  • 100 Harebells - 2012

References

{{Reflist}}