INSCRIBED BY HORNBY TO LADY HAMBLEDEN
Les Amours Pastorales De Daphnis Et Chloe
Ashendene Press 1933.
First edition. One of 290 copies on paper. Original quarter vellum over turquoise paper covered boards by the W.H. Smith Bindery with vellum corner tips and gilt decoration to the upper cover and to the spine. Presentation copy from Hornby to Lady Hambleden, inscribed on the front end paper, "Patricia Hambleden from the Printer, C.H.StJ.H., June 14 1934" Print handset in Ptolemy type, title page printed in red and black, with chapter headings and marginalia printed in red to each page and initial letters in blue. Four full page and 22 smaller wood engravings by Gwendolen Raverat. A near fine copy with just a hint of dustiness to the spine, but an unusually well preserved example.
The W.H. Smith copy. A fine association. Patricia Hambleden's husband, William Henry Smith, was the great-grandson of W.H. Smith, founder of the eponymous firm of stationers and newsagents. His father, Frederick Smith rowed with St John Hornby at Oxford and after taking ownership of W.H. Smith in 1891, brought Hornby in as a partner. Hornby left some two years later, with Smith's encouragement and support, to found the Ashendene Press. It was Hornby's connection with Douglas Cockerell which led Smith to hire Cockerell to run the W.H. Smith bindery. W.H. Smith bound all the books for the Ashendene Press. Frederick Smith died in 1928 and was succeeded by William Henry both as Viscount Hambleden and as owner of W.H. Smith.
PROVENANCE: The Library of the W.H. Smith family, Viscounts of Hambleden, (presentation inscription from St John Hornby)
Stock ID: 31696
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