Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. #9 of 300 hand-numbered copies, of which this one of an unstated few bound in full stiff vellum with green silk ties and gilt-lettered spine. Filled to the brim with 50 illustrations of buildings and architectural details, including one etched plate, two photographic plates, and 47 illustrations in the text (32 of which are full-page). This copy appears to be signed (though we cannot find any other examples of her non-etched signature) by Godman's wife, Jessie, below the etched plate she illustrated. This study of Norman architecture in the county of Essex is a result of Essex House Press founder C. R. Ashbee's and Godman's intense interest in preserving historic architecture and Ashbee's involvement in William Morris's Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings. Godman was Ashbee's first architectural pupil and first secretary of Ashbee's Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London (which included parts of Essex and Middlesex). "[Godman] and Ashbee made an odd pair, the one was all fire and go, the other plodding along. . ." Crawford, C.R. Ashbee. Architect, Designer & Romantic Socialist (1985, pgs. 58-60, 216-17). This work documents buildings constructed between the Norman Conquest in 1066 and 1200 A.D. and was one in a series of six proposed architectural studies planned by Ashbee and Godman that was cut short by Godman's early death. 8vo. Tomkinson 57. Ransom 54. Crawford 62. Ashbee, pg. 78. Very good with bowing to boards which are a bit stained, with some offsetting to endpapers and morocco bookplate of W. A. Foyle, Beeleigh Abbey.
Seller: Nelson Rare Books, ABAA, Haddonfield, NJ, U.S.A.