[Barbarian Press]

The Seasons: 4 Bagatelles; [comprising:] Upon Vermilion Wheels | Stories of Snow | Calice & Stem | Sweet Hay & Gone

Mission, B.C. Barbarian Press, 2011 - 2013. Four pamphlets assembled in a burgundy cloth covered solander box. The box measures 29.7 x 22.5 cm. Four horizontal bands of marbled paper are inset to the box’s upper cover; there is a printed paper label to the spine, and a black silk ribbon pull is affixed to the box’s tray; the tray and inside of the upper cover are lined with paper. Bands of mild sunning to the box’s upper cover, else fine. The four pamphlets comprise:

(1) Upon Vermilion Wheels | Poems for Autumn.
2011. Quarto, 27.5 x 20.3cm. Sewn with green thread into printed wraps of handmade Barcham Green Robin Cover paper. The paper is tan with subtly variegated undertones of green and red. Lettering and a roundel composed of printer’s ornaments printed in vermillion to the upper cover. Unpaginated [pp. 16]. The text was set in Bembo and Fairbanks, with Champlevé for display; it was printed on Barcham Green Tovil “hand-made at Hayle Mill, Kent, in happier days.” The text is decorated with three designs formed with a variety of fleurons and other ornaments; two, including the frontispiece, are printed in two colours: red and bronze. The text comprises autumnal poems by John Clare, A.E. Housman, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rilke, P.K. Page, George Meredith, and Trumbull Stickney. From an edition of 110 copies. According to the colophon, 26 copies from the edition (including the present copy) were reserved for inclusion in sets.

(2) Stories of Snow | Poems for Winter.
2012. Quarto, 27.9 x 20.5 cm. Sewn with blue thread into printed wraps of handmade lilac St-Armand cover paper. Lettering and a design of printer’s ornaments printed in purple to the upper cover. Unpaginated [pp. 16]. The text was set in Bembo and Fairbanks, with Elysian for display; it was printed on Biblio mouldmade paper. The text is decorated with four designs formed with a variety of fleurons and other ornaments; two, including the frontispiece, are printed in two colours: pewter-blue and purple (“old rose”). The text comprises poems by an anonymous 16th century poet, John Clare, Archibald Lampman, Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Thoreau, Hardy, P.K. Page, and Heather Simeney MacLeod. From an edition of 100 copies. According to the colophon, 55 copies from the edition (including the present copy) were reserved for inclusion in sets.

(3) Calice & Stem | Poems for Spring.
2012. Quarto, 27.7 x 20.3 cm. Sewn with green thread into printed wraps of handmade pale green St-Armand cover paper. Lettering and a design of printer’s ornaments printed in lilac to the upper cover. Unpaginated [pp. 16]. The text was set in Bembo and Fairbanks, with Egmont Initials and Fournier le Jeune for display; it was printed on Heine mouldmade paper. The text is decorated with five designs formed with a variety of fleurons and other ornaments; one is printed in green and pink. The text comprises poems by Tennyson, John Clare, Gerard Manley Hopkins, one of the anonymous authors of the Harley Lyrics, Jan Zwicky, Emily Dickinson, Crispin Elsted, James Butterfield, and Francis Beaumont. From an edition of 100 copies.

(4) Sweet Hay & Gone | Poems for Summer.
2013. Quarto, 27.6 x 20.4 cm. Sewn with yellow thread into printed wraps of handmade yellow St-Armand cover paper. Lettering and a design of fleurons printed in blue to the upper cover. Unpaginated [pp. 16]. The text was set in Bembo and Fairbanks, with Demeter for display; it was printed on handmade St-Armand Rideau laid paper. The text is decorated with four designs formed with a variety of fleurons and other ornaments; one is printed in blue and yellow; another— a collection of fleurons complete with rules as stems— is printed in yellow, orange, and green. The text comprises poems by Chaucer, William Morris, Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, Archibald Lampman, Walt Whitman, Jan Zwicky, George Meredith, Ebenezer Jones, and Molly Holden. From an edition of 100 copies.

Additionally, there is a loosely inserted single sheet printed with four haiku on Wookey Hole Invicta handmade paper. The r maji texts were set in Fairbanks italic; and their parallels, ‘Englished’ by Crispin Elsted, were set in Bembo roman. Each of the four haiku is embellished with a printer’s ornament, printed in green, yellow, bronze, and pewter-blue. The box was made by Alanna Simenson; the marbled papers embellishing its upper cover were made by Ann Muir. The limitation of the set is unknown: the colophon for Upon Vermilion Wheels specifies a limitation of 26 copies, while the colophon for Stories of Snow states 55 instead. An archived entry on the Barbarians’ site indicates a limitation of 60 copies. Item #322

Out of stock