The Page.

Craig, Edward Gordon

Craig, Edward Gordon (illus.)

click image to zoom

Hackbridge, Surrey: 1898-1901. Nine small quarto volumes. The complete run of the publication. Includes the first twelve issues from 1898, bound together in a single volume in green cloth boards as issued (they were also published separately); the Special Extra Number from 1898, which was a supplement compiled from the first three issues of the journal; all four Volume 2 issues from 1899 and 1900 along with the Specimen Copy from 1899; The Page Christmas Number from 1900; and issues 1 and 2 from 1901, bound together in wrappers as issued (numbers 3 and 4 were planned but never issued). Lacks the second "Special Number," which was compiled from the first twelve issues. Also a few of the plates are not present, although one of these is the plate of Henry Irving from Volume 1 No. 3; Fletcher and Rood report that no copy has been seen with this plate. The set does contain some of the rarer plates not usually seen. With the exception of the first 12 issues in boards, all issues are bound in brown, tan, or green illustrated wrappers. The Page was a journal of the literary and visual arts edited by Edward Gordon Craig, illustrated throughout with black and white and color artwork by Craig and many other leading artists of the day, including Oliver Bath, James Pryde, Max Beerbohm, and Edward Burne Jones. It printed a variety of works in a number of artistic disciplines, including poetry, prose, and even music along with its poster illustrations, costume designs, portraits, bookplates, and "other curious things." A champion of the work of Walt Whitman, Craig included snippets of the poet's verse in the magazine as well as engraved portraits of Whitman. Craig was the son of Ellen Terry, the famed stage actor, and her bookplate as well as an illustration of her appear in the magazine, as does an advertisement for his sister Edith's costume design business. But the magazine also stands out for the playful sense of humor it mixed in with the serious art. In the Specimen Copy, for example, Craig announces that he is taking orders for gingerbread in honor of traditional gingerbread Horn Books used by children to learn the alphabet. "Our gingerbread will be sold at 1/3 a piece," he writes, "each piece having a fine capital A B C D etc. on it, and . . . an o thrown in (this is for the governess to eat). . . ." A renowned designer in the theater, Craig published The Page at a time when his artistic interests were broadening to include illustration and writing, and the magazine is a product of his involvement in these areas. He would later go on to publish The Mask, a periodical about theater arts. To the book world, he is perhaps most revered for his masterful "black figure" woodcuts for the 1928 Cranach Presse edition of Hamlet. Most issues in this set are in near fine or fine condition, their paper wrappers intact with no tears or defects, save for some edgewear as might be expected for yapped edges extending beyond the text block. The Special Extra Number and the Christmas Number show some additional wear, the former with a two-inch tear at the spine head resulting in some paper loss and the latter with cracks at the hinges and some paper loss at the spine ends. Text block in issue number 1 of bound volume loose, but holding. Aside from these few condition issues, a fine set of a landmark publication by a legend of the stage and the page, rare in its entirety. Prospectus and several announcements laid in. Bookplate. (Item ID: 22211)