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GOSPELS OF MATILDA, COUNTESS OF TUSCANY 1055-1115.
([Oxford]: Privately printed [at the University Press] for presentation to The Roxburghe Club, 1917). 388 x 280 mm. (15 1/4 x 11"). 43, [1] pp.With an introduction by Sir George Frederic Warner. Presented to the president and members of the Roxburghe Club in fulfilment [sic] of the intention of John Pierpont Morgan (died March 31, 1913) by his son. New York, 1917. ONE OF APPROXIMATELY 40 COPIES for club members only.
Restrained but stately contemporary crimson crushed morocco by Riviere & Son (stamp-signed on front turn-in), covers and spine compartments with mitered gilt rule frame, raised bands, gilt lettering in two spine compartments, gilt-ruled turn-ins, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. With monochrome frontispiece and 31 numbered plates, 19 in color, 12 monochrome, all reproducing pages and features from the 12th century Gospel of Matilda. Verso of front free endpaper with engraved bookplates of Captain Richard Campbell, O.B.E., R.N.; engraved "With the Compliments of" slip from John Pierpont Morgan [Jr.] laid in before subscriber list; the name of Michael Tomkinson, Esq., printed in red on the list of club members. Faint one-inch scratch to lower board, flyleaves with mild foxing, isolated faint thumbing, but a very fine copy--quite fresh and clean internally, in an attractive unworn binding.
This is a very appealing copy of a great American collector's final project: the facsimile printing of leaves from a 12th century manuscript of the Gospels in his collection, printed exclusively for members of an elite and historic association of bibliophiles. Founded in 1812 and strictly limited in its membership to 40, the Roxburghe Club is, according to its website, "the oldest and most distinguished society devoted to printing unpublished documents and reprinting rare printed texts, among them unknown or neglected works of English literature and history. The list of publications now runs to almost three hundred volumes that range from medieval manuscripts in facsimile and important works in Early and Middle English, to more modern texts, unpublished Jacobite documents, the correspondence of Garrick and the Countess Spencer, and Disraeli’s letters." As a requirement, Roxburghe members present book ideas to the membership, and these proposals are turned into books produced to the highest standards, often employing innovative techniques for reproducing facsimiles. J. P. Morgan (1837-1913) was elected to the club in 1912, but died before the book he proposed to publish could be finished. His son, John Pierpont Morgan, Jr., saw the work through the press, and had it bound by Riviere, either in three-quarter or more deluxe full morocco. Ours is one of latter, printed for Michael Tomkinson (1841-1921), a very successful carpet manufacturer and community leader, who became a member of the Roxburghe Club in 1910. Morgan sent the book to Tomkinson with his compliments, and it was very carefully maintained by its recipient and subsequent owners, among them Captain Richard J. Campbell (1933-2023), a hydrographer in the Royal Navy and a discriminating book collector. Campbell received an O.B.E. in the 1983 New Year's honors for converting his deep ocean survey ship to serve as an ambulance during the Falklands War. Given its very strictly limited press run, our book is understandably very scarce in the marketplace (we could not trace a copy sold after 1986). (ST20500)
Price: $3,000.00