Handbook for Members of Co-Operative Committees [In Presentation Binding by the Co-Operative Printing Society]

Manchester: The Co-operative Union Limited, 1924. Second edition (revised). Octavo; xxii,456pp. Presentation binding of full deep brown levant over beveled boards, with on-laid decorations in red and tan; gilt ornaments to both boards and spine, full gilt turn-ins; all edges gilt. With binder's ticket at rear pastedown: "Bound by / Co-Operative Printing Society / New Mount St. Manchester." Also with a handsome, hand-colored calligraphic presentation leaf bound in before text: "Presented by the Central Education Committee of the Co-Operative Union Limited to H. Marlow, Esq., on the occasion of the Week End Meeting held at Croydon. Easter: 1929. Trivial rubbing to spine ends; still a tight, Fine copy.

An excellent craft binding from the workshop of the Co-Operative Printing Society of Manchester, originally founded in 1869 as the "North of England Co-operative Printing Society," a shared workspace and clearing house for printers, binders, lithographers and others engaged in the craft of bookmaking. It operated under the umbrella of the Co-operative Union, Ltd, founded in 1883 and the principal body of trade and wholesale cooperatives in Great Britain through most of the 20th century. We've been unsuccessful at discovering a precise identity for the recipient of this copy, one "H. Marlow," a common-enough name to defy our efforts. (Inventory #: 83850)