DISTINGUISHED TYPOGRAPHY - Bloomsbury Auctions

Lot 202
202. Aesop. fa b l e s, translated by Samuel Croxall, edited by
Victor Scholderer, number 1288 of 1500 copies on Barcham
Green paper signed by the designer, printed in red and black
in Fell type, designed by Bruce Rogers and with illustrations
from Florentine woodcuts redrawn by him, original vellumbacked
marbled boards, spine titled in gilt, t.e.g., others
uncut, board slip-case, 4to, 260 x 180mm., Limited Editions
Club [printed by John Johnston at the Oxford University
Press], 1933. £150 – £200
Lot 203
203. Morison (Stanley) fr a lu c a d e pa c i o l i o f bo r G o
s.se p o l c r o, one of 390 copies on Batchelor handmade
paper initialled by the author at end of preface, designed
by Bruce Rogers and printed in red and black in Monotype
Centaur by Walter Lewis at the Cambridge University Press,
fine title-page with decorative border, initials, decorations,
photogravure portrait and illustrations, tissue guards, exlibrary
copy with stamps on colophon and another small one
on front pastedown, otherwise a good copy in the original
vellum-backed patterned-paper boards, t.e.g., others uncut,
modern cloth slip-case, small folio, 310 x 210mm., New
York, Grolier Club, 1933. £500 – £700
* * * The result of a collaboration of three of the most eminent
figures in modern printing: Bruce Rogers, Walter Lewis
and Stanley Morison. This book was one of 31 chosen to
represent the twentieth century in the Printing and the Mind
of Man Fine Printing Exhibition at the British Museum in
1963 (item no.178).
Lot 204
204. Nash (John Henry).- Dante Alighieri. th e co m e d y...
c o m m o N ly c a l l e d th e di V i N e co m e d y, translated by
Melville Best Anderson, 4 vol. including ‘The Florence of
Dante’ by Anderson, number 35 of 250 copies on handmade
Van Gelder, printed in Cloister Old Style Lightface ruled in
green, original vellum, gilt, spines gilt, yapp edges, t.e.g.,
others uncut, w i t h prospectus in marbled cloth, uncut, a little
rubbed, spine worn at head and foot, together 5 vol., folio,
355 x 230mm., San Francisco, John Henry Nash, 1929.
£1000 – £1500
* * * John Henry Nash started printing in San Francisco on
his own press in 1911. According to the prospectus, in 1923
the President of Mills College suggested to him that he
should devote himself to a monumental publication for the
honour of California. She also introduced Nash to Melville
Best who had been translating Dante. Thus Anderson’s life’s
work became Nash’s magnum opus. He commissioned
paper with his own watermark and had a new type cut; the
production took seven years.
A printed subscriber’s label pasted into the prospectus notes
that this copy belonged to Mrs. William Hand.
The library of Jan van der Marck
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