doves press bindings (4 Ergebnisse)

235 x 167 mm. (9 1/4 x 6 1/8"). 203 pp. 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 (18781943) 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. ONE OF 200 COPIES ON PAPER (and 12 on vellum).

235 x 165 mm. (9 1/4 x 6 1/2"). 341 [1] pp. VERY ATTRACTIVE DARK BLUE CRUSHED MOROCCO IN THE STYLE OF THE DOVES BINDERY (counterfeit signature stamped and dated 1907 to the rear turn-in), covers simply framed by two plain gilt rules, raised bands, spine compartments with rose window designs formed by six open ovals accented with dots, encircled by two gilt rules, with low platforms and dots above and below, gilt titling, turn-ins gilt-ruled and with cornerpieces of open ovals, dots, and gouge work, all edges gilt and gauffered with two rows of tiny dots. Initials designed by Edward Johnston. Printed in red and black. Pastedown with the bookplate of Helen and Michael Oppenheimer. Tidcombe DP-13. For the binding: Tidcombe, p. 464. Spine a little sunned, just a trace of soiling to leather, the usual offsetting from the facing turn-ins on the front and rear free endpaper, a hint of yellowing to quire b, but still fine, the text otherwise pristine, and the binding unworn and lustrous. This is one of the 26 intriguing (and obviously uncommon) examples Tidcombe has identified as forged or imitation Doves bindings, a group of handsomely executed volumes that continue to be mysterious. Tidcombe differentiates between forgeries (those books that are stamp-signed with "C - S" and a date, as here) on the one hand and unsigned "copies of Doves bindings or bindings in the Doves style" on the other. But she treats them as one group "because they have several features in common." For example, signed or unsigned, all of the suspect bindings cover Doves Press books, all are bound in dark blue morocco, and all have a signature pallet with the letters "E" and "S" close together. Although Tidcombe suggests that the person responsible for the forged Doves bindings could possibly have been the former Doves Bindery finisher Charles McLeish, she does not settle on him or any other likely candidate. Whoever was behind them, the volumes in this puzzling group of bindings--like other forgeries and imitations of historically important cultural artifacts--are actively collected for their value as counterfeits. And as with other counterfeits, the present binding is a kind of implicit homage, in this case to the outstanding work done by Cobden-Sanderson at the Doves Bindery--our spurious binding would not have been worth undertaking, were the objects it mirrored not so universally recognized as worthy of imitation. The text here is an uncategorizable work reminiscent of satires by Swift and Sterne in its fictitious biography of Teufelsdroeckh (i.e., "devil's dung"), Professor of Things in General at the University of Weissnichtwo ("Know-not-where"). Day calls it "an intellectual and spiritual autobiography and a diatribe against current conditions in England" that advocates a reorganization of society and its institutions, so that "Brotherhood and the duty to work usefully will grip mankind's true leaders and assure a theocracy, a reborn humanity ruled by the divine spirit within." 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. ONE OF 300 COPIES printed on paper (and 15 on vellum).

236 x 165 mm. (9 1/4 x 6 1/2"). 203 pp. LOVELY DOVES BINDERY-STYLE DARK BLUE CRUSHED MOROCCO, VERY INTRICATELY GILT AND INLAID, BY WESLEY D. BAKER (verso of front free endpaper stamped in ink: "Baker Bindery for James Cummins, Bookseller"; rear turn-in stamp-signed in gilt: "20*WDB*08") covers with wide frame of inlaid pink morocco Tudor roses (a total of 88 inlays on the covers), the blossoms linked with sinuous gilt stems with delicate leaves, all on a background stippled with tiny stars, raised bands, spine compartments similarly adorned, with inlaid rose at center, a trio of leaves at each corner, and a background of stars, gilt lettering, gilt-framed turn-ins with cornerpieces featuring an inlaid rose, gilt branches, and stars, white watered silk pastedowns and endleaves, all edges gilt. Printed in red and black. Tidcombe DP-36; Tomkinson, p. 58. A PRISTINE COPY. This is a refined book full of lovely love poetry, offered as an object so gorgeous that its Doves Press imprint has to take an uncharacteristic second place in importance; this is especially true because the binding, which clearly derives from Doves Bindery models, is a convincing perpetuation of that firm's superb achievements. 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." Our binding was done by Wesley Baker in 2008, using tools created by Roy Petit (responsible for the roses) and Stewart Fields (who cut the leaf tools). Baker became interested in bookbinding while in college, and attended workshops in the Northeast U.S., but is largely self-taught. From Alabama, he has adapted the traditional techniques used in England to the climate of the Deep South, where high temperatures and humidity require a different method of gold tooling than would be used in London. The present binding represents the latest attempt we know of to carry on in any thoroughgoing and convincing way the great tradition created by Cobden-Sanderson at the Doves Bindery at the center of the Arts & Crafts Movement. ONE OF 200 COPIES ON PAPER (and 12 on vellum).

235 x 164 mm. (9 1/4 x 6 1/2"). 84 pp., [1] leaf. ELEGANT CONTEMPORARY DARK BLUE MOROCCO, EXTRAVAGANTLY GILT, IN THE STYLE OF THE DOVES BINDERY, gilt, covers with strapwork frame, daisy cornerpieces, two medallions at center in an intricate Celtic knot design, raised bands, spine compartments with guilloche tooling, gilt lettering, turn-ins ruled in gilt with strapwork loops at corners, all edges gilt and gauffered with rows of dots. Three fine capitals engraved by Noel Rooke and Eric Gill after Edward Johnston. Printed in red and black. Tidcombe DP-18; Tomkinson, p.56; Gill 307. For the binding: Tidcombe, "The Doves Bindery," Appendix III, pp. 458-65. Mild offsetting from turn-ins (as uaual), one opening with barely perceptible horizontal darkening along tail margin, but A BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL COPY INSIDE AND OUT. This Doves Press version of Shakespeare's Sonnets is based on the text of the first edition of 1609 and is printed in celebration of the 300th anniverary of their first appearance. The volume is a very pleasing example of the "Book Beautiful" as envisioned by press founders T. J. Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker: a desirable text rendered with reserved elegance and exquisite taste in Walker's stately Doves type. Cobden-Sanderson was a perfectionist, and finding that he had inadvertently printed an extraneous comma in the first sonnet, he covered over by hand every extra comma in every copy, using an early form of correction fluid. The correction is just visible in our volume (after the word "aboundance"). The engraving Gill did on the initials here is among the very earliest of his recorded work. Our binding is not signed, but was clearly inspired by Doves Bindery examples. The navy crushed morocco, the elaborate but tasteful design, and the precise tooling are all characteristic of Doves work. While the tools and pattern do not match any of those in Tidcombe's comprehensive study of the bindery, the open petals in the cornerpieces are similar to Doves tools, just as the use of strapwork is common in Cobden-Sanderson bindings. Tidcombe documents counterfeit Doves bindings in her book, and notes several common features. Like ours, all of the fake bindings are on Doves Press books and all are bound in dark blue morocco. But they differ from our binding in that they all use a stamp-signed Doves Bindery signature. She considers unsigned bindings in the Doves style copies, rather than forgeries. All that being said, it seems possible that our binding was created by an artisan who had studied with Cobden-Sanderson and who was much influenced by his bindings. ONE OF 250 COPIES ON PAPER (and 15 copies on vellum).