Alison’s Fishing Birds; | Illustrated by Jim Rimmer
[Vancouver]: Colophon Books, 1980 [Original sheets. Later state: 1998]. Octavo, 26.4 x 17.9 cm. Cased in full green cloth over boards. The spine is lettered in gilt and there is a blind-stamped vignette of a bird to the upper cover. The gilt title on the spine is misprinted with an additional ‘l’: Alison is spelled ‘Allison’. pp. [ll. 4: blank self-ends; pp. 10] 11-35 [3; ll. 3: blank self-ends]. There is a small bump to each board along the fore-edge. Else a fine copy. The text was set in Goudy’s Italian Old Style and printed on Gutenberg Laid paper. The design, composition, presswork, and illustrations were done by Jim Rimmer. The binding was executed by Courtland Benson of Twin Doves Bindery. The text is illustrated with 6 monochrome drawings and 5 headpieces in colour by Rimmer. Additionally, a linocut frontispiece depicting a kingfisher is tipped to the title page. The frontispiece is signed in ink, but undated, by Rimmer and hand-coloured in blue, grey, and red. From a total edition of 500 copies. The present copy is unnumbered. It belongs to the later state bound and issued in 1998. This later state comprises only 20 copies bound in full green cloth. A state in full dark green Oasis leather, comprising only two copies, was issued contemporaneously with the later cloth state. (Cave, Roderick Haig-Brown: A Descriptive Bibliography. A 194 (b)). Item #411
“In early spring 1998, nearly eighteen years after the first state of Alison’s Fishing Birds was published, a second state was released in a slightly different format. Courtland Benson, residing in Victoria, B.C., who bound-up the first state copies in 1980, had retained in his possession 22 unbound copies of Alison’s Fishing Birds from the original printed sheets. Perhaps these unbound sheets are part of the 35-40 copies Courtland wasn’t able to bind-up successfully in leather and cloth in 1980 because of the difficulty with applying the blind stamped osprey on the front cover. In any event, Cameron Treleaven, proprietor of Aquila Books in Calgary, Alberta, in conversations with Courtland, discovered the existence of these sheets and was able to arrange to have them bound by Courtland Benson and put on the market for sale. Alison’s was then offered to the public through Aquila Books. The printed sheets didn’t have the hand-colored kingfisher tipped on the title page. Jim Rimmer was commissioned once again to draw the illustration in duplicate.” (Cave 2000, 273).
Price: $105.00