Eclogues of Vergil. In the original Latin with an English prose translation by J.H. Mason: & with illustrations drawn and cut on the wood by Aristide Maillol.
London and Weimar: Emery Walker, Ltd., for Cranach Presse, 1927.
The Cranach Press Virgil, With Woodcuts by Aristide Maillol
CRANACH PRESS. MAILLOL, Aristide, [illustrator]. MASON, J.H., [translator]. VIRGIL. The Eclogues of Vergil. In the original Latin with an English prose translation by J.H. Mason: & with illustrations drawn and cut on the wood by Aristide Maillol. London and Weimar: Emery Walker, Ltd., for Cranach Presse, 1927.
Full Description:
[CRANACH PRESS]. The Eclogues of Vergil. In the original Latin with an English prose translation by J.H. Mason: & with illustrations drawn and cut on the wood by Aristide Maillol. [London: Published by Emery Walker, Limited, for the Cranach Press, 1927].
English edition, one of 225 copies on handmade paper, this being number 123. Small folio (12 7/8 x 10 inches; 328 x 255 mm). [2], 110, [8] pp. Uncut. Forty-three original woodcuts by Maillol. Title-page and initials designed by Eric Gill. A German and an French version were printed simultaneously
Publisher's original binding, bound by W.H. Smith & Son in full red morocco. Spine lettered in gilt. Top edge gilt, others uncut. Occasional very minor spotting. Overall a very good copy.
“Under the direction of Count Harry Kessler of Weimar, the relatively few productions of this press demonstrate notably high standards and equally distinguished results. Special types and papers resulted from long and thorough experimentation, and similar care was devoted to the design of each volume, in which type and paper remained the principle ingredients. There is much of the Doves Press clarity and restraint, with some additions of illustrations and decoration. A quotation from the Virgil prospectus—‘The unity of the book was the guiding principle....The text, the illustrations, and initials were conceived architecturally from beginning to end’—is a crisp statement of fundamental book design” (Ransom).
“As early as 1908, Count Kessler...was attracted to Maillol’s sculpture and invited the artist to go with him to Greece, where the Virgil project was conceived. Begun in 1912, it was delayed by the war. A classical spirit pervades the finished volume, from the harmonious composition of the type to the slightly archaic grace of the figures” (The Artist and the Book).
The Artist and the Book 172. Ransom, Selective Check Lists, p. 252, no. 6. Modern British and American Private Presses (1850-1965): Holdings of the British Library, p. 36. Hutner and Kelly, Century for the Century, 15.
HBS 69743.
$7,500.
Price: $7,500.00
Item #69743