The Life of Saint David.

(Gregynog Press.) (SAINT DAVID.)

The Life of Saint David.

Description: 6/25 COPIES specially bound from a design by Horace Walter Bray by George Fisher (from an overall edition of 175 copies), printed in Poliphilus on Batchelor handmade paper, chapter openings printed in sky blue, initials in red and paragraph marks added in red with a quill by Bray, 25 hand-coloured wood-engravings by R.A. Maynard and Bray, pp. [iii], 41, [i], 4to, original polished scarlet Levant morocco, both covers with gilt Celtic cross, the lateral arms interlocking with gilt rules, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and title in gilt; press, designer and binder names stamped in gilt at lower turn-in of rear cover, top edge gilt, housed within custom-made felt-lined morocco drawer slipcase, fine

Publication Details: Newtown, Powys: Gregynog Press, 1927

Notes: An exquisite book, the hand-coloured wood-engravings, coloured by the bindery women under the direction of Bray, a new departure for the press, and the first book from the press to include in the colophon the name of the accomplished pressman, Herbert John Hodgson. 'This slim quarto, the bravest experiment in illustration so far, was the first book to be printed on damp hand-made paper... Maynard had only recently learned the technique through a chance remark made to him by Bernard Newdigate of the Shakespeare Head Press.' (Harrop). The title-page vignette was translated from a small brass of ...moreAn exquisite book, the hand-coloured wood-engravings, coloured by the bindery women under the direction of Bray, a new departure for the press, and the first book from the press to include in the colophon the name of the accomplished pressman, Herbert John Hodgson. 'This slim quarto, the bravest experiment in illustration so far, was the first book to be printed on damp hand-made paper... Maynard had only recently learned the technique through a chance remark made to him by Bernard Newdigate of the Shakespeare Head Press.' (Harrop). The title-page vignette was translated from a small brass of Saint David which had only been discovered in Hereford Cathedral a few months before the book's production, a rubbing taken in person by Maynard and Bray. (The Miss Margaret Sidney Davies Complete Collection of Special Gregynog Bindings, De Zilverdistel, 1995) HIDE

Bibliography: (Harrop 7)