The Vale Press Shelley Volumes, Glimmering with Glorious Pansies by Bayntun-Riviere

THE POEMS.

(VALE PRESS). (BINDINGS - BAYNTUN-RIVIERE). SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE.

(London: [Printed at the Ballantyne Press for] Vale Press, 1901-02). 240 x 145 mm. (9 1/2 x 5 3/4"). Three volumes. ONE OF 300 COPIES on paper (and 10 on vellum.).

VERY PRETTY GREEN CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT, BY BAYNTUN-RIVIERE (stamp-signed on front turn-ins), covers framed by long-stemmed pansies, raised bands, spine compartments with pansy centerpieces, densely gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. Fine elaborate woodcut initials and four pages with intricate borders, all by Charles Ricketts. Ransom p. 436; Tomkinson, p. 170. A breath of shelfwear to tail edges, occasional trivial foxing, but A BEAUTIFUL SET, clean and fresh internally, in unworn bindings.

This is a particularly beautiful English set, being printed in London by one of the most important Arts & Crafts private presses, and being bound in Bath by an eminent, long-lived bindery. The Vale Press was founded--and closely supervised by--Charles Ricketts, who was perhaps the most significant figure in the private press movement after William Morris. From 1896-1903, Ricketts ran the Vale Press, which produced books that in Cave's words were "far truer to the spirit of fifteenth-century printing than Kelmscott work." The Press issued nearly 50 titles, and both its impressive output and considerable artistic success can be attributed to the fact that Ricketts, who was remarkably skilled as a designer, painter, and illustrator, was in control of every facet of the operation. Tomkinson observes that "although the actual printing was done on the premises of the Ballantyne Press, the Vale books were built entirely on Mr. Ricketts' design under his personal supervision on a press set apart for his sole use; the founts, decorations, illustrations (including the engraving on the wood), watermarks, and pagination were all the work of Mr. Ricketts, and it is doubtful if, in the history of printing, books have been made which reflect the invention and work of one man more explicitly than do the Vale books." Our bindings are the work of a firm created by the merger of two venerable English binderies. Founded in Bath in 1894, the Bayntun bindery has provided beautiful bindings for bibliophiles for more than 130 years. In 1937, Bayntun acquired the Riviere bindery, which had been in business since 1829, and began signing its bindings "Bayntun-Riviere," as here. It is now the last of the great Victorian trade binderies still in family ownership. Although he lived only 30 years, Shelly (1792-1822) left an enduring legacy. His remarkable lyricism, powerful imagination, energetic espousal of political change, and vision of the consequential role of the poet (he said "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world") combined to exert lasting influence on the poets who came after him. The pansy motif used here--for the marginal decoration in the text as well as in the all-over design of the bindings--is especially apt: in his poem "Remembrance, " Shelley wrote "Pansies let MY flowers be" (emphasis his). (ST20827)

Price: $6,500.00