Match In A Bottle (With prospectus, origional order form, and selected additional leaves)

North Andover, Massachusetts: Kat Ran Press, 1997. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Gohde, Kurt. Quarto size, 39 pp., signed by Tracey Knapp and Kurt Gohde. The first book published by the Kat Ran Press, an impressive debut volume.

The illustrations were created by Kurt Gohde by means of using fire as a drawing medium - the natural pairing for this book of poetry dedicated to fire and its flames. Mr. Gohde uses highly imaginative techniques to create the path of smoke, using "techniques as varied as simply scaring the page with a single match", "to lighting lines of gun powder that had been carefully laid down on the page". Note that each of the eight images in the book "were each recreated over one hundred times. These are not prints, photographs, or offset reproductions. THEY ARE ORIGINAL DRAWINGS". (n.b., above quotes from the book's prospectus.)

Our volume is no. 34 of 50 copies (there were another 15 copies NFS), with the 12-page prospectus and original order form loosely laid in; it also includes three additional selected signatures, including the title page and two illustrations.

___DESCRIPTION: Bound in red cloth specially imported from Japan, stamped with 22-karat gold foil displaying the title on the front, fore-edge uncut, title page in red and black, printed on Arches mould-made paper imported from Epinal, France, printed directly from metal types cast by Michael and Winifred Bixler, quarto size (approximately 11" tall), unpaginated with 24 leaves (including blanks), SIGNED by both Knapp and Gohde on the colophon page. Housed in a clam-shell box covered with the same red cloth as the book, title stamped in gold on the spine.

___CONDITION: Fine, with a strong, square text block, solid hinges, perfectly straight corners with no rubbing, the interior is clean and bright, and it is entirely free of prior owner markings; the prospectus, order form, and additional signatures are also all in fine condition. We are grading the clam-shell box as near fine, held at a certain angle there seems to be a shadow on a portion of the back cloth, which may be a natural variation in the weave.

___CITATION: Kat Ran Checklist A1.

___POSTAGE: International customers, please note that additional postage may apply as the standard does not always cover costs; please contact us for details.

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