History of the Peloponnesian War. The Ashendene Press edition bound by Michael Wilcox

Chelsea: Ashendene Press, 1930. Wilcox, Michael.] Thucydides (ca. 460 – ca. 400 BCE). The history of the Peloponnesian War. [2], 363pp. Chelsea: Ashendene Press, 1930. One of 260 unnumbered copies printed on Batchelder Ashendene “knight in armor” paper. 401 x 272 mm. Custom bound by Michael Wilcox in full dark red morocco gilt, gray and bright red onlays, gilt-tooled edges and turn-ins; custom-made cloth drop back box. Very fine. A masterpiece by Michael Wilcox, one of the greatest North American designer binders. Wilcox’s output as a designer binder was exceptionally small. In his entire career he probably only created around one hundred designer bindings, (truncated) most of which are now in institutions around the world. For this binding Wilcox personally created a number of special tools including a spear that he used in the frieze-like panels and on the edges of the boards, a shield and spear that he used on the doublures, and an eye used in the tableaus. Wilcox described the artistic conception behind the “Thucydides” binding as follows: Because Thucydides’ book is, quite rightly, described as a moralist’s work which does not contain the usual Greek obsession with gods and romantic heroes, I have tried, in my design, to avoid anything suggesting the outright glorification of war. Forming a somber background, the three-headed vulture, a monster with human-skull belly and wings that fan the burning crops of wheat, is intended to be an ashen symbol of the ravages of war—the kind of greedy and immoral war which is folly and leads to the mass slaughtering of innocent people and the wanton destruction of the land. I have placed Thucydides in the center of things, calmly recording all that is reported to him by eyewitnesses. The frieze-like pictures within frames do not refer to specific events but are abbreviations for showing a variety of activities that recurred generally throughout the war. Thucydides invented the speeches of his orators. My orators, on the spine, are caricatures representing common types: the hawk, the dogged agitator, the quixotic campaigner, and the dove (letter to Jeremy Norman, 21 March 2001). The Ashendene Thucydides was the last large folio work issued by that press. Ashendene Bibliography 37. . (Inventory #: 44456)