Wesley

1914 · ref. ST20137 — Hammersmith: Doves Press 1914. ONE OF 200 COPIES ON PAPER and 12 on vellum. 236 x 165 mm. 9 1/4 x 6 1/2". 203 pp. LOVELY DOVES BINDERY-STYLE DARK BLUE CRUSHED MOROCCO VERY INTRICATELY GILT AND INLAID BY WESLEY D. BAKER verso of front free endpaper stamped in ink: "Baker Bindery for James Cummins Bookseller"; rear turn-in stamp-signed in gilt: "20WDB08" covers with wide frame of inlaid pink morocco Tudor roses a total of 88 inlays on the covers the blossoms linked with sinuous gilt stems with delicate leaves all on a background stippled with tiny stars raised bands spine compartments similarly adorned with inlaid rose at center a trio of leaves at each corner and a background of stars gilt lettering gilt-framed turn-ins with cornerpieces featuring an inlaid rose gilt branches and stars white watered silk pastedowns and endleaves all edges gilt. Printed in red and black. Tidcombe DP-36; Tomkinson p. 58. A PRISTINE COPY. This is a refined book full of lovely love poetry offered as an object so gorgeous that its Doves Press imprint has to take an uncharacteristic second place in importance; this is especially true because the binding which clearly derives from Doves Bindery models is a convincing perpetuation of that firm's superb achievements. Ever the perfectionist Cobden-Sanderson personally selected and arranged the poems in the present anthology only after much considered effort. He noted in his journal on 31 July 1913: "I have put 'Bright Star' first for I wish the feeling of the last sonnet to accompany the reader throughout; and at the end revert to Keats' first sonnet and so leave the poet as it were on the peak in Darien." Our binding was done by Wesley Baker in 2008 using tools created by Roy Petit responsible for the roses and Stewart Fields who cut the leaf tools. Baker became interested in bookbinding while in college and attended workshops in the Northeast U.S. but is largely self-taught. From Alabama he has adapted the traditional techniques used in England to the climate of the Deep South where high temperatures and humidity require a different method of gold tooling than would be used in London. The present binding represents the latest attempt we know of to carry on in any thoroughgoing and convincing way the great tradition created by Cobden-Sanderson at the Doves Bindery at the center of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Doves Press unknown books