Books and Manuscripts

Spenser, Edmund
The Faerie Queene...
(London): The Ashendene Press, 1923. First and limited edition, one of 180 copies printed on paper. Folio. iii, (407) pp. From the library of English architect and founder of the Essex House Press, Charles Robert Ashbee, and with his book-plate on front paste-down. Text printed in red, blue, and in black. Publisher's quarter brown calf over vellum-covered boards, lettered in gilt; all edges untrimmed; hinges skillfully and indiscreetly reinforced with japanese paper; prelims lightly foxed; small stain in lower gutter of first several leaves from calf turn-in; in publisher's brown cloth slip case. Hornby 32; Ransom, p. 206; Franklin, The Private Presses p. 196; Franklin, The Ashendene Press, pp. 240-241; Tomkinson, p. 7

A fine example of one of the large folio works by The Ashendene Press. From the library of founder and major designer of the Essex House Press, Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942). Colin Franklin, in The Private Presses, writes, "Nobody can declare that one or another book was a printer's best, with the variety of Ashendene books issued and the changes over four decades...On the whole I think I like Faerie Queene and Morte Darthur best...Hornby liked his large books best. It is easy to see why the two tall volumes of Spenser ranked high for him..." (p. 57)

An excellent copy.