Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Shelley, [Percy Bysshe]. Shelley.. Doves Press, Hammersmith, 1914.
Price: US$1603.88 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: "Cleanly printed from first to last" as Cobden-Sanderson remarked on 'Shelley'. A very good copy of 200 printed on paper from a total edition of 212 copies (12 on vellum). ¶ Description: Original full limp vellum with title in gilt on spine. Octavo: 24 × 17 cm; pp. 181. Printed in black and red on Doves handmade paper, top edge cut, fore and lower edges trimmed. Inner pastedown stamped 'The Doves Bindery'. ¶ Ref.: Cobden-Sanderson 1922, 142; Tidcombe DP35 ¶ Condition: Volume is near fine, with clean boards, straight corners without rubbing. Pages tightly bound throughout, pages 102-103 and 106-[107] show some yellow discolourations (verso of gathering g1, obviously an incident during printing), edges slightly spotted. But otherwise, a very good, clean copy. ¶ Notes: The 'Shelley' print was a tough nut to crack. By May 1914, when Shelley was printed, Cobden-Sanderson had recovered from his long illness, but he had become over-sensitive about the quality of the presswork. He blamed his age for the imperfections he thought were there, and for his 'growing inability to energize the Press to its fingertips'. In the end, however, he found the prints were 'on the whole quite "all right" - cleanly printed from first to last' (Tidcombe, 2002). It is all the more surprising, given Cobden-Sanderson's pedantry, that a copy with such a paper defect should have come into circulation at all. ¶
Seller: Georg Schneebeli :: Rare Books & Prints, Zürich, Switzerland
Price: US$1698.63 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: One of 200 (plus 12 on vellum) copies set in 'Doves' face types and printed on specially watermarked handmade paper. Printed in red and black with initials. Two lines printed in Greek. Bound in full vellum , gilt-lettered SHELLEY, inner pastedown stamped THE DOVES BINDERY. A fine copy.
Seller: Collinge & Clark, London, United Kingdom