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Penrose Quay, Cork · two presses, one kettle
Marrow
& Cask
A letterpress and hand-bindery working out of a former chandler's store on the north channel of the Lee. We set metal type, print damp, and sew books by hand for people who still want to hold the argument.
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— Nuala Brennan, proprietor, on the shop's second proof
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Work
Most of what leaves the shop is commissioned: a run of two hundred, a run of forty, occasionally a single copy that takes a fortnight. Below is what has been on the presses lately.
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The Lee Broadside Series
Six poems by Cork writers, each set in 18pt Caslon and printed on BFK Rives grey. The series is sold as a boxed set with a letterpress wrapper; the wrappers were cut from a deaccessioned ledger we bought at a house clearance in Blackpool.
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Rebinding: the Bantry Missal
A nineteenth-century missal with a broken spine and water damage through the first quire. Re-sewn on linen tapes, new quarter-leather spine in oxblood goatskin, original boards retained and consolidated. Eleven weeks.
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Follain's — a hundred and forty menus
A restaurant on Washington Street that changes its menu weekly and refuses to print them digitally. We set the template once and re-set the dishes every Monday. It is the least glamorous job in the shop and the one we are proudest of.
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Wedding invitations, Kinsale
Navy and oxblood on a heavy cotton rag, hand-torn edges, no foil, no script font. The couple asked for "nothing that looks like it came from a website." We took that as a brief.
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Stationery for the Crawford Studio
Letterheads, compliment slips, and a run of business cards printed on the reverse of a retired paper stock so the deckle sits on the left. The studio has reordered twice.
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The Cask Labels
Gummed labels for a Midleton distillery's single-cask releases. Printed on a dampened sheet so the registration sits slightly soft, which is the point. Numbered by hand in iron-gall ink.
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What we will not do
- We will not print anything we cannot set by hand in a day.
- We will not use foil, laminate, or a digital press for a job we can print properly.
- We will not take a rush order. There is no such thing here.
- We will tell you if your idea is bad. Politely, and once.
"The press does not care how much you want it. It cares whether the forme is right."
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The Shop
The front room sells what we make when nobody has commissioned us. Prices are for the shelf as it stands; when a run sells out it usually does not come back.
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Commission a run
Tell us what it is, roughly how many, and when you need it. We answer within two working days — usually with questions.
Prefer to write it out longhand? Post it to the shop — we read the post before the inbox, and we answer it first.
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About
Marrow & Cask was started in 1978 by Dónal Brennan, a compositor who lost his job when the Cork Examiner went over to cold type and decided, at forty-six, that he would rather own a press than learn to be unnecessary. He bought a Heidelberg Platen from a printer in Mallow and a Chandler & Price from a school that was clearing out its art room, and put both of them in a chandler's store on Penrose Quay that still smelled of tar.
His daughter Nuala took the shop over in 2004. She had been a bookbinder in Dublin and came home with a standing press, a plough, and a strong opinion about grain direction. The two presses are the same two presses. The kettle is newer. Between them they have printed roughly four hundred jobs and refused, by Nuala's estimate, about sixty.
There are three of us now: Nuala on the bindery bench, Ciarán on the Heidelberg, and Saoirse, who came for a six-week placement in 2021 and has not left, on composition and the finishing. We take one placement a year and we pay for it.
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The shop, plainly
- Presses
- Heidelberg Platen, 10×15, 1954 · Chandler & Price Pilot, 1908
- Type
- Caslon Old Face, Baskerville, Gill Sans, and a drawer of oddments nobody will admit to owning
- Stocks
- BFK Rives, Zerkall, Fabriano Rosaspina, and a cotton rag we have made in Bandon
- Inks
- Van Son rubber-based, mixed by eye on a glass slab. Oxblood is 60/40 with a touch of black.
- Binding
- Hand-sewn on linen tapes or cords. Leather from a tannery in Wexford; cloth from Winter & Company.
- Currently
- Setting a bilingual edition of Seán Ó Ríordáin for a Dublin publisher — Irish and English on facing pages, which is a registration problem we are enjoying.
"Everything in this room is older than everyone in this room. That is not nostalgia. It is a supply chain."
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Visit
The shop is on the north channel, between the bridge and the old bonded warehouses. Look for the green door with the brass plate; the entrance is up the stone steps, and the press-room is the noisy room at the back.
Marrow & Cask14 Penrose Quay
Cork, T23 XW61
Ireland
| Monday | Closed — press-room only |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | Closed — press-room only |
| Wednesday | 10:00 – 16:00 |
| Thursday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Friday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Saturday | 11:00 – 16:00 |
| Sunday | Closed |
We are closed to visitors in January, when the shop is cold and the presses are being serviced. Enquiries still get answered.
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Getting here
- On foot from Patrick's Street. Cross the river at St Patrick's Bridge, turn left along the quay, and keep going past the Custom House. Fourteen minutes, flat.
- From Kent Station. Out the front, left down Lower Glanmire Road, then right onto Penrose Quay. Nine minutes.
- By bus. The 202 and 208 stop on Merchant's Quay; it is a three-minute walk from there.
- By car. There is no parking on the quay. Use the Q-Park at Carroll's Quay and walk down; it is five minutes and the walk is the better part.
Workshops
Twice a year we run a two-day introduction in the press-room: setting a forme, locking it up, makeready, and pulling a small edition of your own. Six people, no experience needed, all materials included. The next runs are the second weekend in April and the first weekend in October. Places go to whoever asks first, and we keep a waiting list for the one after.
"Come in. Ask what the machine does. We will stop and tell you."