Lot 413
Golden Cockerel Press
Printed Books, Maps and Manuscripts
Auction: 11 July 2006 at 12:00 BST
Description
The four gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ. Berkshire: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1931, 4to, number 77 of 500 copies, decorations by Eric Gill, printed in Golden Cockerel type on Batchelor hand-made paper, contemporary half cream morocco gilt, some rubbing to backstrip, interior fine
Footnote
Provenance: Bookplate of John Helias McEwan of Marchmont. From the collection of the late W.S. Adams.
Note: Four Gospels one of the finest examples of the British Private Press movement. Christopher Sandford, who, with his partners took over the Golden Cockerel Press in 1933, later wrote of this book:
"Conceived in the fruitful mind of Robert Gibbings, this is the Golden Cockerel book usually compared with the Doves Bible and the Kelmscott Chaucer. A flower among the best products of English romantic genius, it is also surely, thanks to its illustrator, Eric Gill, the book among all books in which Roman type has been best mated with any kind of illustration". (Chanticleer, 1936, p.36)