Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$356.17 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition thus, 1899. Essex House Press, limited edition of 750 copies, this is number 701. Frontispiece woodcut and publishers colophon at the end. Printed in red and black throughout. Uncut page edges very slightly foxed. Split at the top of the inner hinge. Looks as though it might be a paper flaw. Publishers full vellum lightly thumbed and marked. generally a very good copy of this attractive private press book. 426 p.
Seller: James Hine, Ilminster, SOMER, United Kingdom
BUNYAN, John. The Pilgrim's Progress.Rubricated text throughout. Essex House, London, 1899.
Price: US$400.00 + shipping
Description: Tissue-protected woodcut plate at front. 426, [4]pp. Very thick 12mo, full vellum (slightly soiled but internally fine); uncut edges. (London: Essex House Press, 1899). Previous owner's inscription of front endpaper otherwise a very good(+) copy Limited edition. One of 750 copies printed by C.A. Ashbee. The 3rd of 84 volumes produced by Essex House.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$400.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Hardcover. Number 627 of 750 copies. This was the third book published by the Essex House Press. Founded by C.R. Ashbee and Laurence Hodson "in the hope to keep living the tradition of good printing that William Morris had revived, and with the help of T. Binning and J. Tippett, compositors, and S. Mowlem, pressman, who came from the Kelmscott Press to that end" (from the printer's note). A lovely example of the fine printing of this noted English press. Bound in the original stiff vellum with title printed in black on spine. Vellum has darkened, particularly on the spine, a few slight abrasions to spine, and a bit of bowing to the front board. Light browning to pastedowns. Browning to the gutter of the page preceding the frontispiece and some browning to page edges. Printed in black and with red shoulder notes and colophon in Caslon type on fine handmade paper. Frontispiece illustration by Reginald Savage protected by tissue guard. Interior pages are very clean and bright. With bookplate of Lewis Hotchkiss Brittin, a WWI aviator affixed to front pastedown and ownership signature in ink of Frances Ryder Leonard on front free endpaper. Despite noted condition issues a nice copy in very good condition. 426 pages. PRI/091423.
Seller: The Kelmscott Bookshop, ABAA, Savage, MD, U.S.A.
Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim's Progress. [Essex House Press, London, 1899], 1899.
Price: US$437.75 + shipping
Description: 12mo in 8s. Limited to 750 copies. The present copy is #379. 426pp, (3) pp. colophon. This is the third book printed at the Essex House Press, which was funded by Laurence Hodson and C.R. Ashbee in the hope to keep living the traditions of good printing that William Morris had revived, and with the help of T. Binning and J. Tippit, compositors, and S. Mowlem, pressman, who came from the Kelmscott Press. Engraved frontispiece, text in red and black, bound in full vellum, spine lettering black. From the library of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy who was an important pioneer historian and philosopher of Indian art, metaphysician, and foremost interpreter of Indian culture to the West. A handsome copy with one tiny closed edge tear to foot.
Seller: Alcuin Books, ABAA/ILAB, Scottsdale, AZ, U.S.A.
Price: US$445.21 + shipping
Description: Limited Essex House Press edition, no.644 of 750 copies, printed at the Press of the Guild of Handicraft, Ltd., under the supervision of C.R. Ashbee, 12mo., pp.426, uncut, full vellum, lettered in black to spine, title and marginal precis printed in red, b/w frontispiece with tissue guard; a near-fine copy.
Seller: Minster Gate Bookshop (est. 1970), YORK, United Kingdom
Price: US$483.37 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Set in Caslon and printed in black and red on hand-made paper. One of 750 copies. Woodcut frontispiece by Reginald Savage. Bound in full stiff vellum with yapped edges, spine titled in black. A very near fine copy.
Seller: Collinge & Clark, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$572.41 + shipping
Description: First edition thus. 12mo. pp [iv], 426, [2]. Frontispiece, with tissue guard, by Reginald Savage. Full vellum with titles in black on spine. Number 208 pf 750 copies. The third book of the press. Pages unopened.Edges lightly spotted, otherwise fine.
Seller: Peter Ellis, Bookseller, ABA, ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$858.62 + shipping
Description: First Essex House Press edition, number 596 of 750 copies only; this copy owned by the press's co-founder Laurence William Hodson (1864-1933), with his book label on the front pastedown. Hodson was a brewer, art collector, and patron of William Morris. For Hodson's home in Compton Hall, near Wolverhampton, Morris designed his final wallpaper, known as the Compton pattern. Hodson and C. R. Ashbee (1863-1942), who managed the Guild and School of Handicraft, founded the press one year after Morris's death in 1896 "in the hope to keep living the traditions of good printing that William Morris had revived" (printer's note). To this end, they hired the Kelmscott Press's former pressman Stephen Mowlem and compositors John Tippett and Thomas Binning. This, the press's third book, is "charming to read and bravely set in the usual size of Caslon with a smaller version of Ashbee's initial letters" (Franklin, p. 79). A Bibliography of the Essex House Press, pp. 5-7; Franklin, p. 198; Ransom, p. 264. Sextodecimo. Original stiff vellum, spine lettered in black, yapp edges, leaves uncut and partially opened. Woodcut frontispiece, with tissue guard, by Reginald Savage. Text printed in red and black in Caslon type. Vellum lightly soiled with spots on rear cover, spine ends with couple of closed tears, foxing on edges, internally fresh. A very good copy indeed.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$950.00 + shipping
Description: First edition thus. 4 1/2 x 6 inches. Superbly bound in full brown crushed morocco (unsigned) with intricate concentric gilt ruled borders and frills, and with central design of stylized blossom, stem and leaf with the flower possessing over 50 tiny inlaid maroon pieces, and the two leaves inlaid with olive green morocco segments, on both covers, spine intricately gilt-tooled. Although no binder is given, this is obviously the work of a gifted binder. Intricate gilt-tooled dentelles, marbled endsheets. #91 of 750 copies, superb tissue-guarded frontispiece woodcut by Reginald Savage, printed at the Guild of Handicraft and the third book of the press. Slight wear to corners and joints, otherwise stunning and bright.
Seller: Nudelman Rare Books, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Essex House Press. The Pilgrim's Progress. Essex House Press, 1899.
Price: US$954.02 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: By John Bunyan. Full white vellum. Covers slightly dusty, fore edge little browned. Nice copy. Edward Arnold for the Essex House Press. One of 750 copies.
Seller: Tindley and Everett, ABA, London, United Kingdom