Podcast Summary

Heavyweight x Cautionary Tales: “Dangerously Near to Absolute Perfection”

Podcast: Heavyweight (Pushkin Industries)
Guest Host: Tim Harford (from Cautionary Tales)
Original Release Date: December 16, 2025

Episode Overview

In this unique episode, Heavyweight host Jonathan Goldstein introduces one of his favorite episodes from fellow Pushkin show, Cautionary Tales, hosted by Tim Harford. The story, "Dangerously Near to Absolute Perfection," explores the fraught artistic collaboration and eventual tragic rift between Thomas Cobden Sanderson and Emery Walker—the men behind the Doves Press, a celebrated early 20th century publishing venture in London. Their joint quest to create “the book beautiful,” and in particular their creation of a legendary typeface, ends in obsessive sabotage, destroyed friendships, and a literal ton of lost art at the bottom of the River Thames. The episode is a meditation on perfectionism, ego, collaboration, and the perils of letting obsession override principle.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. An Old Man's Secret Mission (03:51 – 07:40)

• Scene Setting: November 1916, London—the world is at war, and an old man, Thomas Cobden Sanderson, stealthily lugs heavy boxes down to Hammersmith Bridge under cover of fog and darkness.
  • He’s consumed with fear of being caught and contemplates the risk in his journal:

    "If I'm foolish, well, what can be more foolish than the whole world? … My folly is of a light kind." (04:11)

• Foreshadowing: The listener is left to wonder—what could this ponderous, secretive act possibly be?

2. Origins of Artistic Obsession (07:41 – 15:46)

• The Arts and Crafts Revival: Rewind to late 19th-century London; pioneers like Cobden Sanderson and Emory Walker are at the heart of a movement fighting "crude mass production" with craftsmanship and beauty.
• Emory Walker’s Influential Lecture:

  “Walker had made a career in printing and photography… [his] magisterial history of type, design, printing and illustration… was telling the great Arts and Crafts masters a story that echoed their deepest convictions: a story about crude mass production crowding out elegance and honest craft.” (07:54 – 10:46)

• Notable Characters:
  • Emory Walker: Working-class origins, technical genius, practical, deeply principled.
  • Thomas Cobden Sanderson: Upper-middle class, visionary, romantic, obsessive perfectionist.

3. From Inspiration to Partnership: The Doves Press (18:53 – 22:55)

• The Birth of an Idea:
  • Inspired by Morris and Walker, Cobden Sanderson embarks on his dream:

    “I must before I die, create the type for today of the book beautiful and actualise it… An awe inspiring, daunting project. A project perhaps best undertaken in company.” (14:36)

• A Joyful, Idealistic Beginning:

  “Today Mother and I have been tidying up stairs in the attics where in a few days we hope to begin as printers... Won't it be fun?... Oh, to be in love.” (18:58)

  • Annie Cobden Sanderson funds the Press; Walker and Thomas supply expertise and vision.

4. Creation of the Doves Type: Near-Perfection (19:34 – 24:00)

• The Doves Bible:
  • Their masterpiece, with its minimalist yet luminous type, “is one of the most celebrated pages in the history of printing.”
  • The Doves Type: clean lines, a touch of human imperfection, hailed as “the most beautiful type in the world.”
• Collaborative, Yet Tense:

  “Doves type was a collective effort… Walker had been the inspiration.” (20:54)

5. A Partnership Sours (24:01 – 28:53)

• Friction Emerges:
  • Differing expectations: Walker is pragmatic and busy; Cobden Sanderson is the on-site perfectionist.
  • Unsent Letter:

    “You objected to the adoption of the original edition of Paradise Lost for our edition. You objected to the spelling… to the capitals… to the long initial I… to the arrangement of Isaac’s address… and only the other day you objected to my arrangement of Isaac's address to his 12 sons.” (25:39)

• Financial Woes: Success, but not profitable; Annie’s inheritance is the lifeline.
• Breakup & Bitter Negotiation:

  “My dear Walker, now that the Bible, a great work, is finished… I should like to dissolve our partnership…” (27:18)

  • Sticking point: Who owns the rights to the unique Doves type?

6. The Great Betrayal: Typeface in the Thames (34:13 – 40:01)

• Destructive Obsession:
  • Cobden Sanderson resolves Walker must never use Doves Type. Secretly, he begins destroying the punches and matrices in 1913, tossing them into the Thames.

    “He had promised that after he died, Emory Walker would get the Doves type. But he never had any intention of fulfilling that promise. Instead, he would destroy the type utterly.” (34:23)

• Epic Labor: Over six months, nearly a ton of metal type is carried, 15 lbs at a time, from the Press to the river—at least 170 furtive trips.

  “His journals vividly record the act… I have to see that no one is near or looking. Then over the parapet, a box full, and then the audible and visible splash.” (36:55)

  • Memorable Moment:

    “…on the last page ever printed by Doves Press, Thomas Cobden Sanderson boasted of his deed to the bed of the River Thames…” (39:26)

7. Aftermath: Grief and Unforgiveness (40:02 – 44:40)

• Reaction and Litigation: Cobden Sanderson’s friends and Annie Cobden Sanderson (his wife) are appalled. Emery Walker sues after Thomas’s death, not for money but for principle and recognition.

  “What compensation could there be? But over the principle that Cobden Sanderson did not create the Doves type by himself and the dove’s type was not his to destroy.” (43:36)

  • Annie is forced to pay damages after years of supporting the Press.
• Obsession's Cost:

  “Both she and Walker, and indeed the whole world, had been impoverished by the stubbornness of a man who was now beyond atonement.” (44:11)

8. A Modern Resurrection (44:41 – 48:20)

• Robert Green, Font Detective:
  • Nearly a century later, typographer Robert Green becomes obsessed with recreating Doves Type digitally.
  • He scours the Thames foreshore beneath Hammersmith Bridge—and recovers pieces of type that had survived nearly a century underwater.

  “There it was, a letter V, still in good shape despite 98 years being tossed around underwater. He found two more pieces within 20 minutes.” (46:10)

  • With Green’s digital revival, the beauty of Doves Type is preserved and returned to the public, and profits go to the Emory Walker Museum.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Perfectionism and Human Flaw:

  “The result, said one critic, was dangerously near to absolute perfection.” – Tim Harford (23:27)

• On Obsessive Destruction:

  “In a burst of rage they took the knife and cut the slips and tore the covers and boards off and tossed them to one side. Then in a very ecstasy of rage seized one side again, tore the leather off the board and cut it and cut it and slashed it with a knife. Then I was quite calm again.” – Cobden Sanderson (34:23)

• On Principle Over Ownership:

  “What compensation could there be? But over the principle that Cobden Sanderson did not create the Doves type by himself and the dove’s type was not his to destroy.” – Tim Harford (43:36)

• On Artistic Paradox (Robert Green’s reflection):

  “He claimed to believe in beauty, claimed to be a socialist. Yet the most beautiful thing he created, he doesn't want to share. And he decides to throw it in the river rather than share it with the world.” (47:00)

Key Timestamps for Segments

• Intro & Framing by Jonathan Goldstein: 02:40 – 03:51
• Cobden Sanderson’s Suspicious Night Journeys: 03:51 – 07:41
• Walker’s Influential Lecture: 07:41 – 10:46
• Origin & Nature of the Friendship: 11:30 – 13:30
• Formation of Doves Press: 18:53 – 22:55
• Creation of the Doves Bible and Font: 19:34 – 24:00
• Breakdown of Alliance: 24:01 – 28:53
• Dramatic Typeface Sabotage: 34:13 – 39:57
• Aftermath & Lawsuit: 40:02 – 44:40
• Robert Green’s Modern Recovery: 44:41 – 48:20

Tone & Atmosphere

Evocative, literary, slightly melancholic, and rich in period detail. Tim Harford’s narration is both wry and sympathetic, conveying not just facts but the personalities, motivations, and tragic echoes at the heart of the story.

“Obsession is a strange thing. Almost a century after Thomas sacrificed Doves type to the spirit of the River Thames, another type designer, Robert Green, went down to the foreshore at low tide…” (44:41)

Conclusion

"Dangerously Near to Absolute Perfection" is a beautifully crafted tale of creation and destruction, of how obsessive ideals can fracture even the most visionary partnerships. The Doves Press legacy endures not in the physical type destroyed, but in the fonts, histories, and lessons left behind. Through digital resurrection and reconstructed narrative, the story stands as both a warning and an inspiration for artists, collaborators, and anyone who’s ever risked too much to protect a personal vision.

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