Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$2650.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Hard cover, demi 8vo (measuring 5 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches) Collation:(3),158, (4)pp. With the woodblock printed bookplate of Helen Cecil Minns, and gift inscription in old ink "in memory of Miss Moultrie 1914." Colophon: ".Seen through the Press/ by Sturge Moore/ and decorated /with border designed /and engraved on /the wood by/ C.S.Ricketts, under whose/ supervision the book/ has been printed at/ the Ballantyne/ Press,/ London, /M.D. C.C.C./X.C./I.X. Finely printed upon thick, hand-made paper. Finely bound in green morocco with gilt design on both boards signed by Florence M.E. Paget, associated with the Guild of Women Binders, and a student of the influential British Arts and Crafts bookbinder, Douglas Cockerell. The design consists of concentric gilt bands containing a ruled grid which has intersections featuring alternating small and larger triangles, in a seeming imitation of Edwardian encaustic tile pattern, possibly. The spine has five raised bands, featuring the title and the date 1899 within a similar tile-like pattern. The endpapers are of a green on green diaper pattern. The rear turn-in shows three bands of gilt ruling, with the bookbinder's signature appearing at bottom center: "FP 1902." All edges are gilt. There is also gilt fillet rolled along board edges. Condition: Overall, at least Very Good Plus. There is some minor wear on the exterior, seen along the joints, more so adjacent to the head and foot of the spine. The rear upper corner is moderately rubbed. The spine is a bit darkened, and similar oxidation-caused browning appears to the outer edges of the case. The gilt remains bright ,and there are several (excusable) gilt-obscured printing ink splotches along the rear of the fore edge only seen at a certain angle. This only serves to enhance the wonderful hand-made quality of the item. The interior is firm and bright and fresh, and closer to Fine, with the odd minute rust spot ***A notable feature of this item is the beautiful Charles S. Ricketts-designed border and decorative capital appearing on the title page. It is a particularly beautiful example of Celtic revival design. Ricketts had taken up the baton of William Morris's Arts and Crafts book design in the years following the end of the Kelmscott Press. Ricketts use of the newly designed Avon typeface, or "fount" was introduced with this title. The book was printed on an Albion hand press located on the premises of the Ballantyne Press in November 1899, in a run of 210 copies (and 10 more on vellum). It was reported that the craftsmanship required by the designer resulted in perhaps only1 in four printed pages being accepted for use. The entire print run was sold out pre-publication. Disastrously, a bad fire at the Ballantyne Press in December, 1899 destroyed much of the original materials, drawings, the whole vellum print run, and woodblock carvings for this and other concurrently worked-on volumes of the planned Vale Shakespeare series, a mere month beyond the release of this title. As a result the value of the remaining edition doubled soon thereafter, and it remains quite scarce today. More scarce, indeed, is the presentation of the volume in a binding by one of the more important British women bookbinders of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A Bibliography of the Books Issued by The Vale Press (1904) p. xxvi. M. Watry, "The Vale Press, Charles Ricketts A Publisher in Earnest," ( Oak Knoll/British Library, 2004). B27, and and advertising pamphlet description C43.
Seller: Dark and Stormy Night Books, Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.