John Petts and the Caseg Press

A history of the Caseg Press. A small isolated venture, it was very much an artist's press, drawing on the dramatic landscape of Snowdonia for its inspiration. The Press owed its origins to the youthful idealism of John Petts and Brenda Chamberlain who met as students at the Royal Academy Schools before abandoning the metropolitan scene for a simple existence among the mountains. The Press was started in 1937 at Llanllechid, Caenarvonshire, in the hope that it might provide enough remuneration to support two artists living off the land. By focusing on the engravings produced under the Caseg heading, as well as the illustrations Petts produced for other publishers such as the Golden Cockerel Press, this book traces the precarious history of the Press from its inception, through the difficulties of the war years, to its re-establishment at Llanstumdwy in 1947, up to its demise in 1951.