SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. TERCENTENARY EDITION

Hammersmith: Doves Press, 1909. ONE OF 250 COPIES ON PAPER (and 15 copies on vellum). 235 x 164 mm. (9 1/4 x 6 1/2"). 84 pp., [1] leaf.
ELEGANT CONTEMPORARY DARK BLUE MOROCCO, EXTRAVAGANTLY GILT, IN THE STYLE OF THE DOVES BINDERY, gilt, covers with strapwork frame, daisy cornerpieces, two medallions at center in an intricate Celtic knot design, raised bands, spine compartments with guilloche tooling, gilt lettering, turn-ins ruled in gilt with strapwork loops at corners, all edges gilt and gauffered with rows of dots. Three fine capitals engraved by Noel Rooke and Eric Gill after Edward Johnston. Printed in red and black. Tidcombe DP-18; Tomkinson, p.56; Gill 307. For the binding: Tidcombe, "The Doves Bindery," Appendix III, pp. 458-65. ◆Mild offsetting from turn-ins (as uaual), one opening with barely perceptible horizontal darkening along tail margin, but A BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL COPY INSIDE AND OUT.

This Doves Press version of Shakespeare's Sonnets is based on the text of the first edition of 1609 and is printed in celebration of the 300th anniverary of their first appearance. The volume is a very pleasing example of the "Book Beautiful" as envisioned by press founders T. J. Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker: a desirable text rendered with reserved elegance and exquisite taste in Walker's stately Doves type. Cobden-Sanderson was a perfectionist, and finding that he had inadvertently printed an extraneous comma in the first sonnet, he covered over by hand every extra comma in every copy, using an early form of correction fluid. The correction is just visible in our volume (after the word "aboundance"). The engraving Gill did on the initials here is among the very earliest of his recorded work. Our binding is not signed, but was clearly inspired by Doves Bindery examples. The navy crushed morocco, the elaborate but tasteful design, and the precise tooling are all characteristic of Doves work. While the tools and pattern do not match any of those in Tidcombe's comprehensive study of the bindery, the open petals in the cornerpieces are similar to Doves tools, just as the use of strapwork is common in Cobden-Sanderson bindings. Tidcombe documents counterfeit Doves bindings in her book, and notes several common features. Like ours, all of the fake bindings are on Doves Press books and all are bound in dark blue morocco. But they differ from our binding in that they all use a stamp-signed Doves Bindery signature. She considers unsigned bindings in the Doves style copies, rather than forgeries. All that being said, it seems possible that our binding was created by an artisan who had studied with Cobden-Sanderson and who was much influenced by his bindings..