Featured Titles:

[ASHENDENE PRESS]. Un Mazzetto Scelto di Certi Fioretti del Glorioso Poverello di Cristo San Francesco di Assisi Insieme col Cantico al Sole del Medesimo. (Chelsea, 1904). Quarto. (iv), 40 pp.

One of 150 copies on handmade paper. Featuring ten marvelous woodcut illustrations by W.H. Hooper, who did the woodcuts for the Kelmscott Chaucer, after drawings by Charles M. Gere. This is the first Ashendene title to include original woodcuts, and according to Franklin, "marks another step towards [the] great folios with which the Press will always be identified." The text is in two colors, with red initials designed by Graily Hewitt. Slight spotting to spine and top edge, else fine in blue paper over boards with linen spine, title label on spine. (Hornby 19; Franklin 78-79). (16811) $1,750.

[GOGMAGOG PRESS]. Cox, Morris. The Four Seasons. An Impression of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter: a Landscape Panorama. London, (1965-66). Four small octavo volumes. (26) pp. apiece.

One of 100 copies of the most important publication of the press, printed on Hosho paper, each volume signed by Morris Cox, the artist-printer. All volumes contain a colorful panorama of nature printed from molded blocks, giving an embossed effect. Slight spine slant on Winter; light, uniform toning, else fine in monotype-printed pictorial boards. (Chambers 14-17). (17215) $3,250.

(GOLD PRINTING). Magna Carta Regis Johannis XV. die junii anno regni XVII. A.D. MCCXV. London, John Whittaker, 1816.

Large folio. 14 ff. (12 bound, 2 unbound). Printed entirely in gold on purple satin. This is the first book printed in gold in England, planned by Westminster binder John Whittaker "for the display of a new branch of the art of printing". Long associated with royalty, purple and gold are granted new meaning in this binding document against the excessive use of royal power. The Magna Carta, the perfect vehicle to carry this new typographical distinction, is enhanced by a color that consequently became symbolized as warmth and the bright spirit of the people. A preliminary census of copies at the University of Texas in 1989 recorded fourteen copies printed on vellum, 10 copies on paper, one copy on satin. A second copy on satin, lacking a leaf, rubbed, cracked, rebound, sold at auction in 1982. This is the only known perfect copy of this variant in its original binding. Bound in original morocco backed boards (recased) with printed label. Housed in a morocco backed dropback box. Together with Richard Thomson: An Historical Essay on the Magna Carta of King John. London, 1829. 32, (612) pp. First edition. This is a large paper copy with extra illustrations in color. A.e.g. Bound in contemporary green straight grained morocco, which shows some edgewear, else both volumes fine. (Brunet III, 1297; Library of Congress Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions 1:4, 1944; Lowndes 1450). (19284) $20,000.

[GRABHORN PRESS]. POWELL, H.M.T. The Santa Fe Trail to California 1849-1852. The Journal and Drawings of H.M.T. Powell. San Francisco, Book Club of California, (1931). Quarto. (x), 272 pp.

From a total edition of 300 copies, this is one of 15 special copies that, according to the publisher, "were planned to be colored by hand, but it was found that the drawings were not improved and only a few were completed." Illustrated with folding frontispiece, two folding maps, and three additional folding illustrations. An extremely fine copy in the deluxe binding of full black calf, with a group of prospectuses laid in. A couple of faint scratches, else a very fine copy of this extremely rare book, which is one of the three major publications of the Grabhorn Press. (Grabhorn Bibliography 158). (19400) $15,000.

[ROGERS, BRUCE]. The Song of Roland. (New York, Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1906).

Folio. 36 pp. One of 220 copies. Printed at the Riverside Press. Illustrated throughout with vignettes by Bruce Rogers, colored by hand in vibrant tones after the stained glass windows at Chartres. Considered one of Rogers' most beautiful books, the edition is printed in four colors in "batarde" and Civilit types imported from France, with gilt opening initial. Bound in vellum-backed pastepaper boards with a fleur-de-lys pattern. Joseph Blumenthal counts this edition of Song of Roland among the "small masterpieces" produced at the Riverside Press. George H. Mifflin was so proud of the book that he sent a copy to President Theodore Roosevelt, who responded by requesting an invitation to the publisher's offices "to look at some of your special editions like that Beautiful 'Song of Roland' which you sent me. I am not an expert on these matters, but comparing that 'Song of Roland' with other modern printing, it seemed to me far ahead, and almost like some of the very beautiful printing of books at the end of the fifteenth century." Blumenthal notes, "It was a great day for a publishing house, for Bruce Rogers, and for American bookmaking." A very fine copy of an extraordinary Bruce Rogers work. (Blumenthal, Printed Book in America, p. 65; Blumenthal, Bruce Rogers, pp. 17-18; Warde 71). (21732) $5,500.