Apollonius of Tyre; Historia Apollonii Regis Tyri

(London): The Golden Cockerel Press, 1956. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Severin, Mark. One of 300 copies, quarto size, 68 pp. The Golden Cockerel Press came together in autumn of 1920, at a time when post-World War I society was ushering in a renaissance of creative minds, including another renaissance of the printing press as the artist's tool similar to that of William Morris and the arts and crafts printers of the previous century. The press worked with many notable artists including Eric Gill, Blair Hughes-Stanton, Robert Gibbings, and the artist for this work, Mark Severin.

Mark Fernand Severin (1906-1987) was not only a book (truncated) illustrator; he started by designing pavilions at major exhibitions, postage stamps, and even "greeting telegrams". After WWII he concentrated on providing illustrations for English publishers. A native of Belgium, he was honoured by them with the Order of the Crown and a commander of the Order of Leopold (n.b., from Severin's entry in Horne, "The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators", p. 388).

He was known for his skill in depicting the female nude, a subject to which he does full justice in this story, "Apollonius of Tyre". Apollonius "is the hero of a short ancient novel, popular in the Middle Ages. Existing in numerous forms in many languages, all are thought to derive from an ancient Greek version now lost...The major themes are the punishment of inappropriate lust - the incestuous king invariably comes to a bad end - and the ultimate rewards of love and fidelity" (n.b., quote from Wiki). As with many of the ancient stories, nude women abound; in this work, they are depicted either dead or being sold into slavery (sadly, very likely closer to the truth of those times than we would like to think).

___DESCRIPTION: Bound in quarter orange morocco with maroon canvas boards, gilt depiction of Apollonius on the front board, top edge gilt, frontis one of the six illustrations throughout reproduced via collotype from copper line engravings; Bembo type on mould-made paper, quarto size (9 7/8" by 7 1/2"), pagination: [1-4] 5-68, this no. 299 of 300.

___CONDITION: Near fine, the boards clean and the leather shelfback soft and supple, straight corners without rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior clean and bright (other than a few pages with minute spots of foxing), and entirely free of prior owner markings; a bit of offsetting to the endpapers, else fine.

___CITATION: Cock-a-Hoop, no. 203.

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