(Daniel Press, Katharine Adams binding.) 'A Royal Guest. Chr...

Hammer

£160

(Daniel Press, Katharine Adams binding.) 'A Royal Guest. Christmas 1900', Oxford, Daniel Press, 1900, limited edition, number 47 of 110 copies only, [16]pp, contemporary full morocco gilt by the distinguished fine bookbinder Katharine Adams (1862-1952) (spine rubbed, top board detached but present), gilt stamped "A Royal Guest" and "Daniel Press MDCCCC" to front and rear cover respectively, binding signed in gilt at foot of rear pastedown "KA 1901", all edges gilt. “In March 1901 Katharine Adams exhibited fifty-six bindings at Worcester House, Oxford, the home of the Daniel Press. Twenty-two of these bindings , which included a number of Daniel Press books, were borrowed from their owners for the occasion……..At this stage Katharine Adams’ bindings were still quite modest, but her style, which was both traditional and individual , was set. For covering she used a variety of materials, which in addition to traditional morocco goatskin, included straight-grain and niger pigskin, tanned pigskin and calf...". Marianne Tidcombe, from her important book 'Women Bookbinders 1880-1920.'

The Daniel Press was a private press in England, run by Charles Henry Olive Daniel (1836–1919), his wife Emily and later even their daughters, firstly at Frome and afterwards in Oxford. he was a great enthusiast for letterpress, and is notable for the early date of his private press activities (starting more than forty years before William Morris conceived the Kelmscott Press and the so-called 'private press movement' began). He was also notable for using the Fell types, and a number of historical ornaments, cast by Oxford University Press when these were considered unfashionable by most other printers and publishers.