WISDOM OF JESUS THE SON OF SIRACH COMMONLY CALLED ECCLESIASTICUS

original full limp orange vellum with matching silk ties, spine lettered in gilt, original slipcase covered in marbled paper exe

1932 · Shelley House, Chelsea

Shelley House, Chelsea: Ashendene Press, 1932. original full limp orange vellum with matching silk ties, spine lettered in gilt, original slipcase covered in marbled paper executed by Douglas Cockerell. Ashendene Press. tall 4to. original full limp orange vellum with matching silk ties, spine lettered in gilt, original slipcase covered in marbled paper executed by Douglas Cockerell. (iv), 182 pages. Finely printed in an edition limited to 271 copies of which this is one of 250 copies printed on specially made paper by Batchelor & Sons (Bibliography no.XXXVIII; Franklin pp.186-197,242). An especially fine copy with only minor rubbing to the publisher's (truncated) slipcase (note: the Bibliography does not mention the slipcase). Entirely bright and clean, inside and out. All four ties present in the original condition.

There were a further 21 copies printed on vellum. Printed in Subiaco type. This was one of the last items to be issued by the press, and the last to bear the hand colored initials of Graily Hewitt and his assistants Ida D. Henstock and Helen E. Hinckley. These initials appear throughout in green and blue and are an attractive compliment to the text which is printed in red and black throughout. Two colors of hand colored initials were only used on one other occasion by the press in 1902 for Dante's Inferno. The work is often called the most beautiful of all the Ashendenes. The bookseller James Bain found this book "one of the most beautiful books that has ever come from the Ashendene Press; it is quite perfect in every way" (Franklin p.195). St. John Hornby wrote in the Bibliography that "The printing of this book was due to the fact that my friend and partner, A.D. Power, had with the help of one or two Hebrew scholars compiled from the various versions of 'Ecclesiasticus' a text which he subsequently caused to be written out on vellum and illuminated by A.J. Fairbank and Louise Powell respectively in a volume of great beauty. One day he happened to tell me that he thought of having the version printed, as many of his friends wished to possess it. The temptation to add yet one more book to my list was too strong for me to resist and I there and then offered to print a small edition. I have never regretted having done so, as in my humble judgment it is one of the most satisfactory of the books of the Press."

Founded by Charles Harry St. John Hornby (1867-1946), the Ashendene Press issued 40 books, plus additional minor pieces, from 1895-1935. Less elaborate in appearance and design than William Morris' Kelmscott volumes, but more ornamental than the products of Cobden-Sanderson's Doves press, the Ashendene volumes have long been considered the most satisfying of English private press books. (Inventory #: 59350)

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