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PRE-RAPHAELITE POETRY OF DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI.
(Pasadena: Clinker Press, 2014). Text: 230 x 130 mm. (9 1/8 x 5 1/4"); Box: 270 x 245 mm. (10 1/2 x 9 1/2"). [18] leaves (first blank). Edited and with an introduction by Andre Chaves. ONE OF 25 COPIES WITH A BROOCH FROM SEVEN FINGERS JEWELERS, signed by the printer and jeweler (this copy lettered "A. P.").
Dark gray leather by Mariana Blau, silver title emblem on upper cover, marbled endpapers. In a matching velvet-lined clamshell box with compartment for brooch. With wood engravings based on Rossetti's art printed in purple, and an engraving based on a photograph of the poet printed in blue. WITH A BEAUTIFUL HAND-CRAFTED SILVER BROOCH in a design based on Rossetti painting, SIGNED on the back by the jeweler and numbered 6 of 25. ◆In mint condition.
This unusual book-and-brooch combination features a finely printed volume of Rossetti's best-loved poems and a delicate silver brooch depicting one of Rossetti's Pre-Raphaelite beauties in silver and carved tagua nut (also known as "vegetable ivory"). The production is the result of a meeting in 2007 at the Grove Park Inn Arts and Craft Conference between Andre Chaves, who designed and executed the book at the Clinker Press, and jeweler Tom Herman. The pair has produced seven such combination packages, all strictly limited. One of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82) was an early and profound influence on William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, and through them on the Arts & Crafts Movement that, among other things, revived letterpress printing. Day tells us that Rossetti is "almost unique among English poets as completely the artist, a type more familiar on the Continent. He had no genuine interest in political, social, or scientific movements of his era. Watts-Dunton listed Rossetti's loves as: poetry, painting, Medieval mysticism, and women, all of which might be summed up as the search for ideal aesthetic beauty." Chaves founded the Clinker Press in 1996, and is especially interested in printing works relating to the art of printing and the Arts & Crafts Movement. The press takes its name from the "clinker" bricks used on the garage in which the press first operated, but Chaves notes that "clinker implies something not very important and keeps things in perspective." In 1982, master jewelry maker Herman established Seven Fingers Jewelers, the name deriving from Herman's own handprint, missing three fingers lost in a childhood farming accident. He has since become renowned for his talents at working with precious stones, metal carving, and unique designs. (ST15710a)
Price: $1,950.00