History

Thornwillow Press was founded by Luke Ives Pontifell in 1985 when he was still in high school. Inspired by old books in his parents library and by a course in printing and binding he had taken, Pontifell set out to produce books himself. He printed the first, a children's story by a family friend, and bound the edition on the kitchen table. During his summer vacations from Harvard College, Pontifell continued to print and bind books – bringing the finished editions to bookstores, and slowly building a small following of collectors. After graduating and with four titles on his list, he found that what had started as a labor of love, had evolved into a small business.

While we design and manufacture correspondence papers for some of the finest purveyors of stationery, we have also launched our own lines of cards which draw from the aesthetic vocabulary of our books and from the rich traditions of classical engraving and letterpress printing.