STAND 32

Folio, partly uncut (357 × 238 mm). Type for the title was cut in wood by Eric Gill. With 80 woodcuts by Edward Gordon Craig. 3 ff. blank, 186 pp., 1 f. with colophon verso. With added 35 pp., 1 f. with notes by the editor J. Dover Wilson (separately bound in a pocket on inside lower cover). Printed in black and red: typeface (Hamlet-Fracture) designed by Edward Johnston after that used by Fust & Schoeffer in their Mainz Psalter of 1457, and cut by Edward Prince.

Original red morocco gilt, on upper cover gilt lettered extensive title (10 lines) and one vignette (head), gilt fillet round sides, spine raised on five bands, heightened by two gilt fillets, in 2nd – 5th compartments gilt lettering, two gilt fillets on turn-ins, top edges gilt, signed on rear turn-in »O. Dorfner – Weimar«. In the original slip case.

A masterpiece of the famous german Cranach Press, no. 20 of 300 copies, with the celebrated illustrations by Gordon Craig, printed by Harry Count Kessler at his Cranach Press in Weimar on fine handmade paper produced by Maillol’s nephew at Monval. Our copy is a deluxe version (ca. 35 copies only) bound magnificently in red morocco by Otto Dorfner, Weimar.

»This is one of the most ambitious and successful books of the Cranach Press with a fine harmony between the type page and the illustration.« (Artist and the Book). The breathtaking, shadowy wood-engravings were designed and cut by Edward Gordon Craig (1872 – 1962) throughout 17 years! They compliment the text and Johnston’s Gothic typeface perfectly. The engravings differ from the German edition and six engravings are not present there.

Count Harry Kessler (1868 – 1937), the founder of the Cranach Press, is responsible for the design and lay-out of this fine printing. Influenced by the English private printing, he »achieved distinction in his books by employing experienced artists and craftsmen such as Aristide Maillol, ­Emery Walker, Edward Gordon Graig, Edward Johnston, Otto Dorfner, Eric Gill, etc.

In the original special morocco binding by the foremost Weimar binder, Otto Dorfner (1885 – 1955).

Remarkably fresh and spotless copy (thus quite rare) of this spectacular monument of the private press movement.

Ref.: R. Müller-Krumbach, Harry Graf Kessler und die Cranach-Presse in Weimar, pp.56 – 59 and cat.-no. 50; D. Brinks 79 (with reproduction of the binding on p. 267); Fletcher-Rood C 25(c); Garvey 66; Schauer II, 74; Tenschert, Cat. 32 (1994), no. 37.