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DE LA TYPOGRAPHIE ET DE L'HARMONIE DE LA PAGE IMPRIMÉE. WILLIAM MORRIS ET SON INFLUENCE SUR LES ARTS ET MÉTIERS.
([London: Vale Press] printed at the Ballantyne Press under the direction of Charles Ricketts, 1898). 198 x 128 mm. (7 3/4 x 5"). 31 pp. With the tipped-in errata slip. ONE OF 250 COPIES on paper (and six on vellum).
LOVELY DARK BLUE MOROCCO BY SARAH PRIDEAUX (stamp-signed S. T. P. 1901 on rear turn-in), covers with double gilt fillets bordering wide frame diapered in blind, with gilt dots at intersections of lines, central panel with Art Nouveau design of curling vines terminating in cornflower or bell-shaped flowers, raised bands, spine with swirl of floral vines in head and tail panels, gilt vertical lettering, gilt-ruled turn-ins, endpapers and flyleaves of Japanese vellum, all edges gilt. Vale Press device in red on limitations page. Text ruled in red; printed in red and black in Vale type. Book label of David & Hermione Chambers laid in at front flyleaf; Chambers' pencilled acquisition note on front pastedown: "Beauchamp Bookshop 26.2.46 / j.xxH." Ricketts, Bibliography of Books issued by Hacon & Ricketts, p. xxiii; Ransom, p. 435; Franklin, p. 203; Tomkinson, p. 166. AN IMMACULATE COPY.
This is a superb example of a Prideaux binding on a beautifully printed tribute from two modern private press publishers to a founding father of the Arts & Craft Movement. Inspired by that movement, Sarah Treverbian Prideaux (1853-1933) began binding when she was 31, after training in London under Zaehnsdorf and in Paris under Gruel. She bound books in her inimitable style for 20 years (although, according to Tidcombe, from 1890 onwards she employed the Frenchman Lucien Broca as finisher for the binding designs she created). "She was by far the best of the women binders of the period, . . . she wrote several books on the history of bookbinding, and [she] also taught the craft, one of her best students [being] Katharine Adams." (Maggs Cat. 966) She was also, by her own account, one of the first women to earn a living from bookbinding. Adams says that Prideaux "was a very good judge of leather, using only skins of very high quality, for hers was a counsel of perfection in all things." Tidcombe says that Prideaux bindings "all have a restrained beauty about them that continues to appeal to book collectors. Anything pictorial or gimmicky would have been anathema to her, and she leaned instead towards clean, crisp floral motifs. Her covers are always within the traditional limits of good bookbinding design, avoiding over-intricate tooling which hides the beauty of the leather." Our binding demonstrates the truth of Tidcombe's words, its clean lines, pleasing composition, and tasteful restraint a restful balm to the eyes when compared to the riots of gilding and inlays being produced by other Edwardian binders, notably Sangorski & Sutcliffe and Riviere & Son. Auction records list surprisingly few Prideaux bindings offered for sale: a search of RBH and ABSA found only a couple of dozen examples since 1923, all but one on a private press book or on a copy of her own respected work, "An Historical Sketch of Bookbinding."
"On Typography and the Harmony of the Printed Page" is a panegyric written by Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944), co-founder of the Eragny Press, and his friend and mentor, Charles Ricketts of the Vale Press, as a tribute to the pioneer of the modern Private Press Movement, Kelmscott Press founder William Morris. (The work was begun by Pissarro and completed by Ricketts when Pissarro's health began to fail.) Moved by the unexpected death of Morris in 1896, the collaborators intended this as a homage to Morris' key role in reviving the arts and crafts of the Middle Ages. The first part concentrates on Morris' admiration for the calligraphy and illuminations of Medieval books. The authors lament that with the advent of printing, the book soon ceased to be a work of beauty. The second part covers Morris' interest in the Medieval more generally, and points out that he was also inspired by the arts of Persia and Byzantium. Charles Ricketts (1866-1931) studied at London's City and Guilds Art School and was apprenticed to the prominent wood-engraver Charles Roberts before founding the Vale Press in 1894 with his partner, painter and lithographer Charles Haslewood Shannon (1863-1937). The Vale Press books, which Cave says were "far truer to the spirit of fifteenth-century printing than Kelmscott work," included nearly 50 titles issued during the eight-year life of the press, 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. When Lucien, son of Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro, moved to England in hopes of getting his woodcuts published and having the opportunity to make fine press books, Ricketts stepped in to help him achieve both goals. Ricketts shared his newly created Vale type with Pissarro, and there was an understanding that any books printed in this face would be published by the Vale Press. As a result, 15 of the first 16 books Pissarro produced were printed using the Vale type and issued by Ricketts (although they all bear Pissarro's Eragny Press device). According to Urbanelli, "The Eragny Press was truly a labor of love. Whereas Morris and Ricketts never actually printed at their presses, Lucien and Esther designed the books, engraved all the blocks, set the type and blocks together, then painstakingly proofed and editioned all their work, [only] occasionally hiring a printer to assist."
Our volume comes from the distinguished library of bibliophile and private press connoisseur David Chambers (1930-2025). A book collector from age 9, Chambers assembled a diverse library, but in the introduction to the catalogue for the sale of his collection, his daughter Susan observed, "privately printed books, printed in private homes, became his main interest/obsession." He chaired the council of the Private Libraries Association and edited its journal for many years, as well as compiling an annual list of private press books for the organization. He also founded the Cuckoo Hill Press in the late 1950s; like the Pissarros of the Eragny Press, he specialized in producing books with woodcut illustrations. His well-reviewed "Early Private Presses 1730-1900" was published just before his death. In all, given its combination of text, printing, binding, and provenance, this would seem to be an almost irresistible combination of Arts & Crafts achievement. (ST21213)
Price: $48,000.00