The Kelmscott & Doves Presses; An Essay by Alfred W. Pollard, Presented with Leaves from the Kelmscott Golden Legend and the Doves English Bible | Calligraphy by Martin Jackson
VAN [Vancouver]: HM [Heavenly Monkey], 2019 [in roman numerals]. Quarto, 38.2 x 25.4 cm. Cased in quarter dark blue cloth and light blue painted over boards. French joints. Dark blue painted label, titled in silver, to the upper cover. There is a matching title-label to spine. The self-ends are decorated with a metallic finish. pp. [4, plus ll. 2, self-ends] 5-18, [10, plus ll. 2, self-ends]. A fine copy. The text was set in Centaur type and printed damp on Arches paper: “Centaur seemed a good middle ground between Morris and Cobden-Sanderson. I considered setting the book in this digital recreation of the Doves type by Robert Green [see note below], but decided against it for a number of good reasons. Just as well, because during the course of the project, while spending too much time looking at the Bible leaves, I realized I’m not the fan of the type I thought I was. Some of the characters are just plain weird. I still aspire to the typographic purity of the books, but the type I can leave in the river” (HM, This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven, 1.38. These comments from This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven were set there in Robert Green’s digital Doves type). The text is accented with titling, pagination, and capitals reproduced from original calligraphy by Martin Jackson. Pollard’s essay was originally published in 1921 as the introduction to a catalogue of Kelmscott and Doves books from the collection of William Andrews Clark Jr. The catalogue was printed by John Henry Nash as part of a series surveying portions of Clark’s library. Pollard’s text is reprinted in the present volume for the first time. Quotes from T.J. Cobden-Sanderson, with calligraphed initials by Martin Jackson, open and close the text. Included is a leaf each from the Kelmscott Golden Legend and the Doves Bible. The Kelmscott and Doves leaves are mounted on tabs sewn into the text block. The Kelmscott leaf, Of the Circumsicion of our lorde (The Golden Legend, pp. 15-16), features one woodblock initial and measures roughly 29.1 x 20.5 cm. The Doves leaf, Deuteronomy 15 (The English Bible, Vol. 1, pp. 259-260), measures roughly 33.4 x 23.3 cm. From a total edition of 55 copies. The present copy is number 42 of 30 copies (numbers 21 - 50) comprising the regular state. Each of the deluxe state copies features original calligraphy by Martin Jackson. For the regular state copies, Jackson’s calligraphy was reproduced and printed from polymer plates by Rollin Milroy. Item #384
“Why so many leaves from The Golden Legend have been floating around is a question, the answer probably having something to do with the large edition and number of volumes (1,500 total) circulating… Whatever the reasons, I suspect this may not be the last book to feature leaves from The Golden Legend, but it probably will be the only one that pairs them with leaves from the Doves Bible.” — HM.
Price: $950.00