ID: 1637
Cupid's Pastime.
BUCKLAND WRIGHT, John
Category: Autograph Letters/Manuscripts, Illustrated, Poetry, Private Press
Place/Publisher/Date:
No Place; J.B.W. editions; 1935.
Description: Limited edition; 8vo; original quarter white linen, with white paper boards, decorated with J.B.W. initials in green; dust jacket bearing a cupid with torch and arrow by J.B.W. which is not repeated in the book; top edge gilt, others uncut. Edition of 31 copies marked A to Z and AA to EE, this copy is E. Signed by the illustrator on the limitation page to A.J.A. Symons - John Buckland Wright. Printed on pale green hand-made paper, with six line engravings on copper. Enclosed are two author letters signed from the artist to Symons. The colophon states that this poem, originally printed in 1608, 'is here reprinted as a private experiment in illustration and typography by the engraver of the plates, who offers no other excuse for this publication.' The plates were printed by the artist himself.
The A.Ls.s. are dated July and August 1935 and concern the production and layout of the book. The first, a single page in green ink, states that J.B.W. is sending Symons '...my first experiment. It's not by any means what I really wanted it to be...'. The second consists of two pages in blue ink, in it he mentions Van Krimpen's opinion on the plates and informs Symons that he doesn't 'intend to drop the open style of engraving, rather the contrary, but I should like to get rid of the slight savour of romanticism which is perhaps a little too English in feeling.' Symons was a writer and bibliographer. In 1922, he founded the First Edition Club to publish limited editions and to organize exhibitions of rare books and manuscripts. In 1924 he published a bibliography of the works of Yeats. Reid states this is a most attractive book as J.B.W. was not dictated to by a commission and had his own choice of subject and treatment. Fine, some offsetting to the end papers and the small library book-label of Symons on the front free endpaper. The dust jacket spine is titled in manuscript and is a little soiled with edges slightly nicked. [Reid A19].
Price £3,500.00
