The Chimes; or, Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out & a New Year In | A Goblin Drama, in 4 Quarters | adapted from Charles Dickens’ story by Mark Lemon and G.A. A’Beckett | Introduction by Joel H. Kaplan | Wood Engravings by Colin Paynton
[Mission, B.C.]: Barbarian Press, 1985 [1986 stated in the colophon]. Small quarto, 27.4 x 19.9 cm. Cased in full cream cloth; with a printed paper label to the spine and a paper panel, printed in red, black, and green, inset to the centre of the upper cover. The panel runs the height of the boards and is embellished with a wood engraving by Colin Paynton. Plain pale green endpapers. Housed in a matching cream cloth covered slipcase, with a white silk ribbon pull. pp. [6] iii-xi, [3] 3-72 [8]. The text was set in English Scotch Roman and printed on Zerkall mouldmade paper. The binding was executed by Rasmussen Bindery in North Vancouver. Illustrated with five wood engravings and a wood engraved title border by Colin Paynton. The engravings were printed from the blocks and four are full page. A wood engraved press device and two printer’s marks by Colin Paynton further embellish the book. From an edition of 150 copies, this being number 82. Item #313
“Originally we had projected a series of five Dickens Christmas books, presenting adaptations of A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man. However, we had badly overestimated the potential sales of A Christmas Carol, and proud as we were of that book, we could feel the vile breath of capitalism soughing about our ears. We decided to fix the edition of The Chimes at 150 copies.
The engraver chosen for this book, Colin Paynton, lives in the wilds of Wales, and CE was able to visit him and discuss the illustrations while visiting Britain in the autumn of 1984. Colin is an exacting craftsman & artist & as the work progressed his attention to detail and concern with the book taught us a few timely lessons in the fine art of collaboration. We are grateful to him for that, no less than for the superb engravings he contributed. The detail in his cutting, and his technique of applying texture over texture to create depth of field and to define passages such as sky or stone walls gave JE much the most demanding challenges she had ever had as a printer. During the printing CBC sent a television crew to the press to conduct an interview and catch something of the flavour of what we were up to. One shot shows JE at the moment she pulled the first proof of one of the blocks: the expression of exhilarated pleasure on her face says as much about our reasons for taking on this work as any thousand words could do.” — Jan & Crispin Elsted (Utile Dulci, A13).
Price: $950.00