A Rossetti Spring

[Bexhill-on-Sea, UK: Silver Thimble Books], (1996).

Small Folio. 5 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches. Unpaginated. [20] pp. Hand-written text on double-leaves, the double-page half-title reads "For Jim and Joan," hand-painted watercolor title-page vignette, blue decorative initials; text clean, unmarked. Green decorative paper over boards, hand-written front cover label, clear plastic dust jacket, jacket flap secured under the blue paste-downs; binding square and tight. INSCRIBED by Gordon Murray to Jim and Joan Lorson. LJ724-001. Fine.

UNIQUE. The hand-written text is an anthology of Christina Rossetti's poems on the theme of Spring, selected by Gordon (truncated) Murray for his friends, Jim and Joan Lorson. "Christian Rossetti was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children's poems, including 'Goblin Market' and 'Remember.' She was a sister of the artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti and features in several of his paintings." Wikipedia.

Gordon Murray (1921-2016) was a British television producer and puppeteer. He wrote and produced some of the most popular children's television programs aired in the United Kingdom. After retiring from television in 1982, Gordon produced and distributed more than sixty limited-edition miniature books under the Silver Thimble Books imprint. Bound entirely by hand, they contained watercolor paintings, special covers and bindings, and slip cases. After 1987, Murray began to tire of the run sizes and the amount of work involved in printing letter press, and began to emphasize hand-made editions, including original handwritten texts accompanied by original watercolor illustrations. Gordon Murray's miniature books are some of the best artist's miniature books of the twentieth century. None in OCLC. (Inventory #: LJ724-001)