The Unusual Retree Version, One of Just 10 Copies, this one with Three Specimen Leaves

C-S, THE MASTER CRAFTSMAN. [and] COBDEN-SANDERSON, STELLA. A LETTER FROM STELLA.

(DOVES PRESS - LEAF BOOK). (ADAGIO PRESS). STROUSE, NORMAN H. and JOHN DREYFUS.

(Harper Woods, Michigan: [Printed by Leonard F. Bahr at] The Adagio Press, 1969; 1971). First work: 390 x 255 mm. (15 1/2 x 10"). Second work: 258 x 164 mm. (10 x 6 1/2"). 49, [1] pp., [3] leaves (last blank); [10] leaves. ONE OF 10 RETREE COPIES made up of leftover sheets from the original printing of 329 copies.

Original marbled boards backed in black linen by the Campbell-Logan Bindery. Second work in original stitched brown paper wrapper, inside original manila envelope stamped with press device and lettered "The Adagio Press - Pamphlets." Leaf book with laid-in photograph of T. J. Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker, as issued. With THREE LEAVES FROM DOVES PRESS BOOKS: two tipped-in specimen leaves on paper as called for, plus an extra leaf on paper loosely laid in. Text printed in sanguine, blue, and black. Slip with limitation statement tipped onto last page. First work: Tidcombe, pp ix, 144, 154; Cave, p. 264. Second work: Tidcombe, p 88. ◆In mint condition.

This handsomely printed book is a study of Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson (1840-1922), founder of the Doves Press and the foremost figure in the late 19th and early 20th century among those who straddled the fields of English fine press publishing and artistic binding. The first section, by Norman H. Strouse, gives an overview of the life, character, and aims of Cobden-Sanderson. The second section, by John Dreyfus, studies the troubled relationship of Cobden-Sanderson with his original partner in the press, Emery Walker, based on the discovery of new documents. Because our copy was put together after the numbered run of sets had been completed, it has the advantage of an extra leaf laid in. The numbered copies had two leaves from Doves Press works tipped in, one from a Goethe play and one from the English Bible. Here, we have leaves from Goethe's "Torquato Tasso: Ein Schauspiel" and one from the preface to the English Bible tipped in the usual places, with another Bible leaf, from Revelations, laid in before the tipped-in leaf. The second work here acts as an epilogue to the first: it contains a letter from Cobden-Sanderson's daughter Stella to Norman Strouse, expressing her appreciation for this celebration of her father's work. It also contains the text of the last letter Cobden-Sanderson wrote, to Stella, a few hours before his death. Cave calls "Master Craftsman" an "important study" and "the most substantial" product of the Adagio Press, which was founded in 1956 in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, by Leonard F. Bahr and later moved to Harper Woods, Michigan. Not surprisingly--given its limitation to 10--this is the first copy of the retree or "leftover" edition that we've ever seen. (ST16324)

Price: $1,250.00