SIRA (Ben) & ASHENDENE PRESS

Wisdom of Jesus commonly called Ecclesiasticus

One of 328 copies on paper, with an additional 25 on vellum. Initials throughout drawn by hand in red, blue and green by Graily Hewitt and two assistants, chapter headings and shoulder-notes printed in red. 4to., iv, 184pp., 29 x 19cm. Original orange limp vellum by Douglas Cockerell at the W.H. Smith bindery with orange silk ties, original red, black and tan marbled slipcase. Printed in Subiaco type throughout. Chelsea, Ashendene Press, 1932.

£5,000.00

Fine, slightest of creasing to joints at head and tail, orange vellum exceptionally unfaded and bright. William Russell Flint’s copy, with his pencil ownership inscription to ffep. and a note in his hand regarding the Subiaco typeface on a slip of paper loosely inserted.

The last of the ‘regular books’ of the Ashendene Press, as named by Colin Franklin, in which the ‘qualities which separately had triumphed in many Ashendene volumes were assembled as before the final curtain of an opera… the use of ‘Subiaco in the irregular verse lines, with drawn letters, red shouldernotes and such a text cause this to be regarded often and justly as a favourite among all Ashendene books’ (Colin Franklin, The Ashendene Press). Hornby explained that ‘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’ (St. John Hornby, The Ashendene Press.)

In Ecclesiasticus, Graily Hewitt ‘reappears with drawn letters for the first time since Lucretius… through such an edition it was a large task, beautifully done.’ (Colin Franklin) Hewitt’s letters appear in green, red and blue, a combination not used by Hornby since Dante’s Inferno of 1902. Hewitt for his part took great pleasure in the work, writing to Hornby that ‘the letters are great fun to do, & I am pleased (I hope you will be too) with their superiority (despite wobbliness) in life & looks to the rigidly mechanically exact forerunners which had to be finessed & filed & polished to justify their existence & repetition as ‘blocks.’’ (letter from Graily Hewitt to St. John. Hornby, 13 December 1932)

Stock No.
251141
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