The series comprises Brooke Crutchley’s personal collection of fine letterpress printing – over 200 items originally held in six box files in his study in Little Shelford, Cambridge. The collection includes limited edition booklets, prospectuses, Christmas greetings, dinner and lecture invitations, and other miscellaneous items sent to Crutchley by colleagues from private presses and other institutions.

The original box files were labelled ‘Double Crown Club’, ‘Printing Items 1’, ‘Printing Items 2’, ‘Private Presses’, ‘Rampant Lions Press’ and ‘Whittington Press-Gwasg Gregynog’. Inscriptions in limited edition booklets, occasional letters and notes found throughout the collection demonstrate the professional connections and friendships that Crutchley maintained with printers, typographers and designers throughout his working life and into his retirement.

Crutchley was a member of the Double Crown Club, founded for the purposes of exchanging ideas on good printing, and this series comprises Rules, Rolls of Members and dinner invitations. The club held between four and six meetings annually in which notable people in the world of printing and bibliography were invited to speak. Each dinner invitation and accompanying literature was designed and printed by one of the club members.

The ‘Printing Items’ and ‘Private Presses’ boxes contain mainly single sheets, small booklets and prospectuses from a variety of presses. The last two boxes comprise items specifically from the Rampant Lions Press, Whittington Press and Gwasg Gregynog.