Ashendene Press. Gwendolen Raverat (ill.); Longus: 'Les Amou...

Hammer

£650

Ashendene Press. Gwendolen Raverat (ill.); Longus: 'Les Amours Pastorales de Daphnis et Chloe. Traduction de Messire J. Amyot editee et corrigee par Paul-Louis Courier', Chelsea, Ashendene Press, 1933, limited edition, one of 290 copies on hand made paper, printed in red and black in Ptolemy type, initials and decorations supplied by hand in blue by Graily Hewitt and his assistants, 26 illustrations drawn & cut on wood by Gwen Raverat, of which 4 full page, "imprimé par C. H. St. John Hornby sur sa presse a bras a Shelley House, Chelsea", [4],iv,164pp, 4to, original quarter vellum, lettered and ruled in gilt, turquoise paper covered boards with vellum corner-tips, circular gilt design by Gwen Raverat to centre of front cover. An excellent copy housed in a new well-made slipcase covered in the same patterned paper as the original. The penultimate book from The Ashendene Press. The Ashendene Daphnis et Chloe was intended for publication in 1931, but that edition was printed on Japanese vellum, and because the sheets were packed before the slow-drying ink had sufficiently hardened, all but 10 copies had to be destroyed. The whole edition was reprinted on English handmade paper by H.Gage-Cole, apprentice pressman to William Morris at the Kelmscott Press and pressman at the Doves Press.