Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$954.02 + shipping
Description: First Fairfax-Muckley edition, one of 1,250 copies printed on ordinary paper, in addition to 100 on handmade paper, this copy bound in an arts and crafts manner by William Jessop Mansell. The edition was intended as a stylistic companion to Dent's edition of Le Morte d'Arthur (1894-95), illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley, and as a competitor to the George Allen edition of The Faerie Queene, illustrated by Walter Crane and published the same year. Fairfax-Muckley (1862-1926) was an influential leader of the arts and crafts "Birmingham School", having studied painting and drawing at the Birmingham School of Art in the early 1880s. A 1901 profile by the Society of Designers declares that he "has always had a strong bent towards the straightforward methods of the early painters. as witness the beautiful designs for his well-known edition of the 'Faerie Queene,' which fully express his natural admiration of the early Italian work" (p. 171). Dent commissioned Beardsley and Fairfax-Muckley to illustrate his deluxe arts and crafts publications in an effort to emulate the success of the Kelmscott Press. Society of Designers, 'A Designer of the Birmingham School', The Artist: An Illustrated Monthly Record of Arts, Crafts and Industries, 1901. Quarto (236 x 186 mm). Contemporary half vellum by W. J. Mansell of London, blue morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, spine richly tooled, blue cloth sides, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, pp. 2-4 and 13-14 of volume 1 reprinted and inserted at rear. Woodcut frontispieces and title pages, 25 woodcut illustrations, 11 bifolia and several with tissue-guards, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, ornaments, and borders throughout. Binding square and firm, vellum somewhat marked and soiled, contents toned, faint foxing to endmatter. A very good copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$2098.84 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Limited Facsimile Edition. 3 volumes. Full white Nigerian goatskin with elaborate gilt-stamped decoration and lettering to boards and spines based on Walter Crane's original design, within a maroon silk covered wooden slipcase; top edges gilt. Very minor spots to the fore-edges; otherwise all in fine condition, clean and bright, including the heavy slipcase. A beautiful facsimile edition with Walter Crane's incredible black & white illustrations throughout. Numbered 588 of 1000 limited edition copies published by The Folio Society from the originally published George Allen editions printed at The Chiswick Press, 1894-7. This is a very heavy set and may require additional postage if being shipped outside of Europe. 4to. Limited Edition
Seller: Foster Books - Stephen Foster - ABA, ILAB, & PBFA, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, 6 uniform volumes, gte, sides uncut. All parts, including pictorial, pink covers, bound in decorative binding of cream cloth with pictorial inset stamped in gold and titles in red to each volume. Lacking the publisher's slipcase. Spines were tanned, internals about as nice as we would expect to find, with all covers extant and bound-in.
Seller: Johnnycake Books ABAA, ILAB, Salisbury, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: The celebrated Walter Crane edition, limited to 1,000 sets printed on handmade paper. Crane's illustrations for The Faerie Queene were the most ambitious of his career. Overall, they took him three years to complete, and in the end he had finished 88 large illustrations and 135 illustrative head and tailpieces. The Faerie Queene was an appropriate poem to be illustrated by Crane, who preferred engraving in thick black lines and working in woodblock prints as Medieval craftsmen, such as Albrecht Durer, would have done. Edited by Thomas J. Wise. Quarto, six volumes. In three-quarter black morocco over marbled paper bindings, with decorative gilt stamping, five raised bands, marbled endpapers, and a ribbon marker. The armorial bookplate of Arthur G. Soames, the father-in-law of Mary Soames, Winston Churchill's youngest daughter, appears on each front pastedown. A few tiny nicks along the extremities; otherwise very good.
Seller: johnson rare books & archives, ABAA, Covina, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 6 volume set. 28.5 x 22 cm. Quarto. lxxxvii 1546 pp Bound into 3/4 brown leather over green marble boards and endpapers. 5 raised bands to spines. Illustrated with oveer 200 woodcut illustrations as well as head and tail pieces and decorated initials by Walter Crane. Limited to 1000 copies printed on handmade paper. TEG. Sun toning to spines. A bit of rubbing to edges. Previous owner's bookplate (Deatherage) on front fixed endpaper of each volume. Some scuffing to the spines. Crane's best work.
Seller: Midway Book Store (ABAA), St. Paul, MN, U.S.A.
Price: US$3500.00 + shipping
Description: Six volumes. 4tos; lxxxvii, 1-248 [18], viii, 251-527 [13], viii, 529-805 [13], viii, 807-1044 [12], viii, 1045-1274 [16], viii, 1277-1546 [24]; full polished tree calf gilt with exquisitely tooled spines with red and tan leather labels, marbled endpapers; t.e.g. One of 1000 unnumbered copies on handmade paper printed by Charles Whittingham & Co. at the Chiswick Press, this copy has been beautifully bound in the Riviere style by H.S. Nichols. One of the high-water marks of Art & Crafts book design, this was Walter Crane's last major commission and one of his most fully executed and highly prized publications, featuring 88 full-page illustrations, along with head and tailpieces, devices, and initials throughout. The set was issued in parts between 1894 and 1897 and the original title pages and publisher's devices are bound in at the rear of each volume of this set. [n.b. this is a heavy multi-volume set and will require additional shipping charges]. Rear cover of the final volume detached, hinges tender; some surface scratches; spines faded a shade. A very handsome set
Seller: Locus Solus Rare Books (ABAA, ILAB), Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$4000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: One of 1,000 unnumbered sets printed. 4to. 27.5 by 22 cm. 19 parts bound in 6 volumes. Pictorial pink wrappers bound in. Plates, headpieces and tailpieces by Crane. Gilt rose and leaf pattern in four spine compartments, lettering in two. Three Quarters Crushed Morocco. Marbled pastedown.
Seller: White Fox Rare Books, ABAA/ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$4770.09 + shipping
Description: First Fairfax-Muckley edition, one of 100 large-paper copies on handmade paper, in a bright example of the original cloth. The edition was intended as a stylistic companion to Dent's edition of Le Morte d'Arthur (1894-95), illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley, and as a competitor to the George Allen edition of The Faerie Queene, illustrated by Walter Crane and published the same year. Fairfax-Muckley (1862-1926) was an influential leader of the arts and crafts "Birmingham School", having studied painting and drawing at the Birmingham School of Art in the early 1880s. A 1901 profile by the Society of Designers declares that he "has always had a strong bent towards the straightforward methods of the early painters. as witness the beautiful designs for his well-known edition of the 'Faerie Queene,' which fully express his natural admiration of the early Italian work" (p. 171). Dent commissioned Beardsley and Fairfax-Muckley to illustrate his deluxe arts and crafts publications in an effort to emulate the success of the Kelmscott Press. This edition also comprised a further 1,200 copies on ordinary paper. Society of Designers, 'A Designer of the Birmingham School', The Artist: An Illustrated Monthly Record of Arts, Crafts and Industries, 1901. 3 volumes, large octavo. Original red cloth over bevelled boards, covers lettered and decorated in gilt, top edges gilt, others uncut, largely unopened, red silk bookmarkers. Woodcut frontispieces and title pages, 22 woodcut illustrations (several double-page), woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Extremities rubbed, bookmarkers detached and loosely inserted in vols. I and III, lacking in vol. II, sporadic and mainly marginal faint toning to contents, occasional marks, but generally bright and clean. A very good set.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
SPENSER Edmund CRANE Walter. Faerie Queene. , 1897.
Price: US$5200.00 + shipping
Description: (CRANE, Walter, illustrator) SPENSER, Edmund. Spenser's Faerie Queene. London: George Allen (Chiswick Press), 1897. Six volumes. Quarto, contemporary three-quarter vellum gilt, brown morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut; original wrappers bound in at rear of each volume. $5200.Limited first book-form edition of Walter Crane's "most ambitious project of book illustration" (Lacy, 103), one of 1000 large-paper copies, with 88 splendid full-page pen-and-ink line-cuts (two double-page), 135 illustrative head- and tailpieces by Crane, and six facsimile title pages from earlier editions. Handsomely bound by J. Adams of Manchester."The noblest allegorical poem in our languageindeed the noblest allegorical poem in the world" (James Montgomery). Originally published in the late 16th century (the first three books in 1590 and the next three in 1596, with the "Mutabilitie Cantos" added in 1609), Spenser's ambitious Arthurian allegory was the first epic that "both incorporated countless mythological and folkloric traditions and exemplified the careful design and poetic quality of written literature" (Clute & Grant, 890). Finely printed on handmade paper, the Chiswick Press edition, with notes and commentary by Thomas Wise, was originally issued in 19 parts (1894-96) and stands at the pinnacle of famous illustrator Walter Crane's career. All front wrappers and rear wrappers bound in. Massé, 47. A splendid set of this delightful illustrated edition in fine condition.
Seller: Bauman Rare Books, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$6360.12 + shipping
Description: First edition, limited to 1,000 copies on handmade paper (with a further 27 on japon), a remarkably fresh set in the original unrestored wrappers of this grand production, one of Crane's most distinguished works of illustration. Crane's designs encompass both an Art Nouveau and an Arts & Crafts aesthetic - he had, of course, worked with Morris at the Kelmscott Press - and this edition of Spenser's epic was issued at the height of his fame: he had an exhibition of his work touring Europe "and he was delighted to find that German collectors and museums bought his allegorical paintings, which chimed with German symbolist work" (ODNB). It was one of his last substantial commissions. The printing was executed for the publisher by the distinguished Chiswick Press. The editor of the text was the then-esteemed collector and bibliographer Thomas James Wise, later unveiled as a book forger. 19 parts, quarto. Original pink wrappers with design by Crane. Housed in two large red cloth clamshell cases by Zaehnsdorf. With full-page illustrations by Crane throughout. Slight wear around extremities but overall a lovely set, without fading or restoration, contents clean and partly unopened.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom