The Oppenheimer Copy of the Doves Press Keats Finely Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe

[POEMS] SELECTED, ARRANGED, AND PRINTED AT THE DOVES PRESS BY T. J. COBDEN-SANDERSON.

(DOVES PRESS). (BINDINGS - SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE). KEATS, JOHN.

(Hammersmith: Doves Press, 1914). 235 x 167 mm. (9 1/4 x 6 1/8"). 203 pp. ONE OF 200 COPIES ON PAPER (and 12 on vellum).

VERY PRETTY GREEN MOROCCO, GILT, BY SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE (stamp-signed on front turn-in), covers with delicate frame featuring sprays of flowers at the corners, raised bands, spine compartments with floral sprig centerpiece, gilt lettering, gilt-ruled turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Printed in red and black. Front pastedown with engraved armorial bookplate of Helen & Michael Oppenheimer. Tidcombe DP-36; Tomkinson, p. 58. Spine sunned to a light tan (as often with green morocco) and with three tiny brown spots, otherwise in pristine condition inside and out.

Full of lovely poetry, this refined volume from the always elegantly austere Doves Press comes in a binding that can trace its "descent" from Doves Press and Bindery founder T. J. Cobden Sanderson. Ever the perfectionist, Cobden-Sanderson personally selected and arranged the poems in the present anthology only after much considered effort. He noted in his journal on 31 July 1913, "I have put 'Bright Star' first, for I wish the feeling of the last sonnet to accompany the reader throughout; and at the end revert to Keats' first sonnet, and so leave the poet as it were on the peak in Darien." The Arts & Crafts-style binding from Sangorski & Sutcliffe has more than passing similarities to Doves bindings--perhaps because its binders were trained by a man who apprenticed with and later designed for Cobden-Sanderson’s workshop. Francis Sangorski (1875-1912) and George Sutcliffe (1878–1943) met in 1896 while attending Douglas Cockerell's bookbinding classes at the London County Council Central School of Arts & Crafts. Generally considered to be the leading binder of his day, Cockerell (1870-1945) became an apprentice for Cobden-Sanderson in 1893, when the latter was setting up his Doves Bindery, then established his own workshop in 1897. Impressed with his pupils Sangorski and Sutcliffe, Cockerell hired the latter as a finisher and former as a forwarder in 1898. In 1901, Francis and George went into business for themselves, and before long, they had become two of the most renowned English binders of the 20th century. In the manner of their teacher and of his teacher, they combined high-quality materials with faultless technique and beautiful designs to create some of the most outstanding bindings of the Edwardian era. Our volume was formerly in the collection of fine private press books owned by the distinguished scholars Sir Michael Oppenheimer (1924-2020) and his wife Lady Helen Oppenheimer (1926-2022); he was an Oxford lecturer in politics and history, she an Anglican theologian whose groundbreaking work on ethics helped reform the church's position on remarriage of divorced persons. (ST20580)

Price: $3,800.00