The Most Substantial and Expensive Ashendene
In the Rare and Luxurious Pigskin Binding

Stock #: CRS0901           $9500
PJP Catalog 57.290

     (ASHENDENE PRESS). CERVANTES SAAVEDRA MIGUEL DE.
THE FIRST [and SECOND] PART OF THE HISTORY OF THE VALOROUS AND WITTIE KNIGHT-ERRANT DON QUIXOTE OF THE MANCHA. (Ashendene Press  1927-28))   432 x 305 mm. (17 x 12").    Two volumes. ONE OF 225 COPIES.    Original luxurious white pigskin by W. H. Smith thick raised bands gilt titling on spine sturdy cloth double slipcases (a little marked) with morocco labels.    Lovely woodcut initials and borders designed by Louise Powell cut on wood by W. M. Quick and George H. Ford.    Bookplate of Vincent Lloyd-Russell in each volume as well as shadow of another small bookplate now removed.    Pigskin of first volume just a shade different from second (a common defect as the volumes issued more than a year apart); in all other ways AN EXTREMELY FINE COPY OF ONE OF THE GRANDEST PRODUCTIONS OF THE PRESS the magnificent binding unusually clean and THE TEXT IN PERFECT CONDITION.

A remarkably impressive piece of printing these two volumes taken together constitute the longest Ashendene publication and the most expensive one to produce. It is also the first Ashendene book to be printed in the newly designed Ptolemy type and as such it represents a new direction for the press in its final years of activity. In Franklin's eyes Emery Walker's new typeface derived from the font used for the 1482 Ptolemy printed in Ulm was "a much lighter more elegant letter than the earlier fount" the denser Subiaco. "And with the use of this less dictatorial typeface the printer could cast away a little of his restraint in planning whatever lay outside it. So in 'Don Quixote' we find at last an alphabet of open and freely drawn decorative initial letters designed by Louise Powell and shadowing something of Kelmscott Press taste from years before." The Ptolemy face was used just three more times before the Ashendene Press closed. Pigskin was the rarest of the three bindings offered to subscribers for sets printed on paper: the press' subscriber list accounts for 90 bound in dark green morocco 60 in linen-backed boards and 54 in pigskin. All in all this is an item just short of magnificent in terms of its printing binding and condition.

Hornby 36; Franklin pp. 159 ff.