THE JEWEL THAT WAS OURS [LETTERED DE LUXE EDITION] by Dexter, Colin (with Appreciation By H.R.F. Keating) - 1991

Portishead, Bristol: UK: Scorpion Press, 1991. First Edition, LIMITED EDITION of 1 of only 20 LETTERED DE LUXE copies, this being Letter "K", SIGNED by the author as well as H.R. F Keating, who wrote the Appreciation, and were produced for private distribution. "The Jewel That Was Ours" is regarded by many as one of the best Morse stories. It began as as an outline that Dexter had written for the television screenplay and has the hallmarks of a classic detective story. An elderly female tourist from America is found dead in her room at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford, and a valuable jewel that had been in her possession is found to be missing. The jewel was to have been turned over to Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. Although it looks as if the woman’s death was due to natural causes, the whereabouts of the jewel remains a mystery. The dead woman was an American tourist and the investigation leads to the tour group. When a museum curator turns up murdered, Morse and Lewis set about to sift through seemingly unrelated clues. The inspector must keep on his toes in order to sort out a number of scholarly suspects who are possible culprits. The author of the Appreciation and the President of the Detection Club, H R F Keating is in his element in perusing the Morse novels, from the Oxford setting, the people that Morse meets, to the construction of the puzzles. He delights in commenting on characters in this novel. It was published as a signed limited edition of 150 copies and 20 specially bound presentation copies. The leather spine was jaguar red. From the beginning Scorpion Press decided to include four elements: all books were autographed by the author (or authors); additional material was commissioned about the author; print runs were kept very small (truly limited); and finally the books drew on traditional craft book-binding skills, but had a modern appearance because of a high degree of opulent colour co-ordination. Most of the books have a distinctive look -- being colour coordinated with subtle or striking colours, devised around a leather spine, marbled paper over boards, coloured top edges and patterned coloured endpapers. The marbled papers are hand-made, sometimes to specifications set down by the press. Machine-made marbling does not have the same vitality and eye-appeal of the human controlled marbling process. Block lettering is usually in gold leaf. Should the press issue a second or subsequent book by an author it prefers to keep to the original design and colours. Laid in is a Scorpion Press bookmark announcing its upcoming 1991 titles along with a copy of their De Luxe Specifications.. Signed by All Contributors. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Limited / Lettered Edition.