Stock #: CRS0932           $1900
PJP Catalog 57.293

     (ASHENDENE PRESS). SPENSER [EDMUND].
SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS CONTAINING THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER COMPLAINTS DAPHNAIDA COLIN CLOVTS COME HOME AGAIN AMORETTI HYMNES EPITHALAMION PROTHALAMION SONNETS AND SVNDRIE OTHER VERSES. (Ashendene Press  1925)   437 x 310 mm. (17 1/4 x 12"). 2 p.l. 216 pp.    ONE OF 200 COPIES 175 of them for sale. (There were also 15 copies on vellum 12 of them for sale.)    Original calf-backed thick vellum boards raised bands gilt spine titling.       Printed in black red and blue with numerous large and small roman style initials by Graily Hewitt.    A hint of splaying joints a bit rubbed and flaked with two-inch cracks at head and tail of front joint vellum on covers curling just slightly (as often) where it meets the spine leather spine a little marked vellum lightly soiled but the binding nevertheless entirely solid and a flawless copy internally.

This collection of poems containing some of Spenser's most important and enduring short works is "minor" only in terms of length. Typographically it is one of the most creative Ashendene products as the considerable variation in page design as well as ink color reflects an attempt to suggest the varying contents of these quite different poems. More blue ink was used in this book than in any other Ashendene Press publication and because of the combination of this and the variety in the lengths of the lines Hornby said that the book was for him "a more than usually difficult and interesting typographical problem." The last of Hornby's folios to be printed in Subiaco type it shares in the tradition of impressive Ashendene large-format books all of them beautiful as well as significant achievements in modern book production.

Hornby 35; Franklin pp. 240-41.