According to the Authorised Version of King James I.
ONE OF TWELVE COPIES ON VELLUM, INSCRIBED TO LEONARD WOOLF
The Four Gospels of Lord Jesus Christ According to the Authorised Version of King James I.
Golden Cockerel Press, 1931.
Number 9 of 12 deluxe copies printed on vellum, from an overall limitation of 500. Folio. Full white pigskin binding by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, with gilt vignette of a Gill design on the upper cover. Raised bands to the spine and metal clasps. Presentation copy inscribed by Eric Gill on the colophon, "(Gill monogram)To Leonard Woolf and Babette N. Clayburgh." Printed in 18 point Golden Cockerel Face type, with 65 wood engraved illustrations by Eric Gill, four of which are full page. A fine copy of this magnificent production.
The greatest work of the Golden Cockerel Press and the only known presentation copy of this issue. As noted in the bibliography of the Press, "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".
PROVENANCE: Near neighbours in East Sussex, Gill and Woolf had developed a close friendship around the early 1930s and collaborated on a number of different projects. For the 1931 Hogarth Press edition of Vita Sackville-West's translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's Duineser Elegien, for example, the Woolfs approached Gill to design and cut the initials. The inscription has been appended in a closely matched italic hand: "and Babette N. Clayburgh". The California socialite Babette Clayburgh (18891941) and her husband Herbert Eugene Clayburgh (18781972), a San Francisco silk magnate, were prominent book collectors. They joined the Book Club of San Francisco in 1920.
Stock ID: 35336
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