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Ashbee, C. R.; Church of England. Prayer Book Of King Edward VII. The Book of Common Prayer. Essex House Press, 1903.

Price: US$1117.61 + shipping

Condition: Very Good

Description: Hardback, oak boards with recent leather spine and hammered metal clasps by Anastasia Power at The Guild of Handicraft and Eyre and Spottiswoode. Leather straps now missing. New end-papers. Folio, 38 x 28cm. [12], 387pp. Printed in red and black, woodcut frontispiece, illustrations, decorations, borders, and initials, by W.H. Hooper and Clemence Housman after C.R. Ashbee. Number 96 of a limited edition of 400 copies. Some wear to boards, mainly to corners. Internally minor foxing to first page, otherwise a wonderfully clean copy. The largest book printed by the Essex House Press, printed with a new type for the work, designed by Ashbee. A heavy book, additional postage will be required for orders outside the UK.

Seller: Besleys Books PBFA, Diss, United Kingdom

WREN, Christopher. Life and Works of Sir Christopher Wren. From the Parentalia or Memoirs by His Son Christopher. London: Edward Arnold and New York: Samuel Buckley & Co., (but printed at the Essex House Press, Campden, Gloucestershire), 1903.

Price: US$1267.06 + shipping

Description: Limited edition, no. 242 of 250 copies. 4to bound in 8s. (ii), 259, (1), viii, (2) pp. Later dark blue full morocco, spine with raised bands, gilt lettered direct to two panels, new dark blue endpapers but the original flyleaves also preserved in situ, edges uncut. 6 plates, numerous decorative initials, 20 vignettes of London churches set into the text along with a number of other illustrations and diagrams. A little light spotting to the fore edge of a few of the text leaves, a handsome copy of a delightful book. The book was first published in 1750 and is divided into two parts: the first concerning Sir Christopher Wren's scientific writings on mathematics, anatomy etc.; the second his writings on London and architecture. An Essex House Press book in all but name. The colophon at the rear of the main part of the text, featuring a wood engraving of their building, acknowledges the work "carried out under the supervision of C.R. Ashbee". The 20 church illustrations are attributed to E.H. New with the other illustrations reproduced from the original 18th century edition.

Seller: Bow Windows Bookshop (ABA, ILAB), Lewes, United Kingdom

Ashbee, Janet E[lizabeth] (editor):. The Essex House Song Book, Being the Collection of Songs for the Singers of the Guild of Handicraft by C. R. And Janet E. Ashbee and Edited by Her. Essex House Press, London, 1903.

Price: US$1429.50 + shipping

Condition: Very Good

Description: 1903 - 1905, vii pp + 10 parts: Part 1: 'Songs of Praise', 40pp; Part 2: 'Songs of the Sea', 24pp: Part 3: 'Songs of Loyalty and the Love of the Land', 44pp; Part 4: 'Rounds and Catches', 32pp; Part 5: 'Songs of the Country and the Tilling of the Soil', 52pp; Part 6: 'Songs of Sport', 28pp; Part 7: 'Songs of the Tavern and the Vine', 20pp; Part 8 'Workshop Songs or Songs of the Crafts', 24pp; Part 9: 'Songs of Comradeship, Love, & Courtship', 76pp; Part 10: 'Miscellany of Song', 60pp; each with title page + 'Index of the Essex House Song Book', xxivpp; uncut, paper covered boards, vellum spine with gilt titles, slip case. In a limited edition of 200 copies, this one numbered 156. In very good condition, the page edges dusty, the end papers tanned, the boards rubbed and a little marked, as is the vellum spine. The slip case is a little faded and one corner has split for 3" or so. Charles Robert Ashbee (1863 - 1942) was an architect & designer and one of the leading exponents of the Arts & Crafts movement. He established the Guild and School of Handicraft in London in 1888 which he moved to Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire in 1902. The Essex House Press was part of the Guild and was set up when Ashbee acquired the printing presses of William Morris's Kelmscott Press after his death in 1896. Within 5 years, however, the oversupply of handmade furniture and jewellery to a limited local market led to the demise of the Guild and the Essex House Press in 1907. Ashbee's wife, Janet, survived him and died in 1961. See our other listings for more Ashbee titles

Seller: Gerald Baker, Bristol, United Kingdom

(Essex House Press); Church of England. The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments & Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the Use of the Church of England; together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches; & the form & manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. (Together with a supplement showing variants from the Prayer Book of the Church of England in the Prayer book of the American Church). H. M. Printers, Messrs. Eyre & Spottiswoode; Mr. Edward Arnold, 37 Bedford Street, Strand; Samuel Buckley & Co., 100 William Street, London and New York, 1903.

Price: US$1500.00 + shipping

Condition: Fine

Description: 69/400. Folio. [10], 387, viii (string-bound American supplement)pp. Uncut, on heavy stock. Rebacked in dark brown calf over oak boards; leather inlays at fore-edge of each board (replacing perished clasps and straps). Spine with raised bands, lettered in gilt; gilt dentelles at back-strip edges and inlay borders. Title page (view of London) and frontispiece (Edward VII on his throne, surrounded by his six predesessors) with elaborate woodcut historiation; captions printed in red. Eight pages with table of contents framed with elaborate woodcuts at top. Historiated headpieces and initials. Calendar with woodcuts in red and black, and pages with "proper lessons and psalms" and calendar with illustrative woodcuts. Printed in red and black throughout. "The designs and the type throughout are by C. R. Ashbee; R. Catterson-Smith assisted in the preparation of some of the blocks, which were cut by W. H. Hooper & Clemence Houseman." (Colophon). Inside front cover and first free endpaper with small smudges from removed item laid in. Bookplate with numbers inked to top margin. Fore-edge of block with some traces of handling, else a fine copy in a nearly fine binding. A superb example of the printer's art, and the magnum opus of the Essex House Press. "The English Book of Common Prayer was the first single manual of worship in a vernacular language directed to be used universally by, and common to, both priest and people" (PMM). The source of the Anglican Church's shared liturgical life since 1549, it was first adapted for use in the United States in 1789, and underwent its second American revision in 1892. Limited to 400 copies (10 on vellum), the being copy number 69, hand-numbered at the colophon. Production at Essex House London and Essex House Campden spanned 1901 to 1903. "Throughout his life, [financier J.P.] Morgan was a strong supporter of the Protestant Episcopal church" (ANB), support that included his service on the revision committee that produced the 1892 revision. In a contemporary review, "The Independent," an Episcopal church newspaper, declared: "That the completed and perfected Standard, just issued from the De Vinne press, appears in the sumptuous form which makes it confessedly the finest production of the American printer's art is due to Mr. J. Pierpoint Morgan, who from the moment of his appointment as a member of the committee has never ceased devising liberal things for the furtherance of the work." Provenance: Bookplate at front: "This Beginning of the J. William Smith Collection, illustrative of the art of bookmaking is given for the use of the people to the Syracuse Public Library in testimony of the long and faithful service of the Reverrend Ezekiel Wilson Mund AM LITT D Librarian." References: Ransom 37; see PMM 75.

Seller: ERIC CHAIM KLINE, BOOKSELLER (ABAA ILAB), Santa Monica, CA, U.S.A.

ESSEX HOUSE PRESS: COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor.. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.. London: Essex House Press, 1903, 1903.

Price: US$3573.75 + shipping

Description: First Essex House Press edition, one of 150 copies only, each printed on vellum and hand-coloured, this copy out of series. This is the tenth work in the press's Great Poems Series. Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was first printed in the 1798 poetry collection Lyrical Ballads, with a few other poems. The Essex House Press was founded by Charles Robert Ashbee and Laurence Hodson following the closure of William Morris's Kelmscott Press in 1897 and "came from the heart of the arts and crafts movement" (Franklin, p. 64). Ashbee bought the Kelmscott Press's Albion printing presses after William Morris's death, and employed one of the Kelmscott compositors, Thomas Binning. In 1902 "a bindery was established in the Guild, under the direction of Annie Power, who had been a student of Douglas Cockerell" (Crawford, p. 400). The illuminated letters for this work were provided by Florence Kingsford Cockerell (1871-1949), one of the leading book illuminators of the English arts and crafts movement. Kingsford Cockerell studied calligraphy under Edward Johnston and predominantly worked for the Ashendene Press. Ashbee, A Bibliography of The Essex House Press, p. 21; Franklin, p. 233; Ransom, Essex House Press 40. Alan Crawford, C. R. Ashbee: Architect, Designer & Romantic Socialist, 2005. Octavo. Original vellum, spine lettered in gilt, rose and "Soul is Form" blind-stamped on front cover. Printed in Caslon type. Wood-engraved frontispiece by William Strang, hand-coloured initials by Florence Kingsford Cockerell throughout, interleaved with 15 loosely-inserted tissue guards. Light natural discolouration to bindings, contents clean; a near-fine copy.

Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom