Author: Dan Williford

Ricketts, Charles and Lucien Pissarro [Vale Press] [Bookplate designed by Edwin Davis French] [Grolier Club president Edwin B. Holden’s copy] De la Typographie et de L’Harmonie de la Page Imprimée. William Morris et Son Influence sur les Arts et Métiers.

Paris and London: Chez Floury; Hacon & Ricketts at the Ballantyne Press, 1898. Limited Edition of 250. Paper covered boards,

Boards of half-printed paper with a ‘Wild Rose’ floral design in green and red by Pissarro, printed label on the spine to grey-green paper boards. pp. (4) blank, 31 (5) blank.

Text in French. Printed in red and black, with woodcut designs and decorative border by Charles Ricketts. 20×12.5 cm (8×5″), half-patterned paper over boards, printed spine label.

Spine sunned, minor soiling and wear to edges; very good. Errata slip laid in. Armorial bookplate of Edwin B. Holden present lightly attached .

Edwin Babcock Holden (1861-1906), former president of the Grolier Club, author of bibliographies and book collector. The bookplate is the work of Edwin Davis French (1851-1906), one of the most well-known and sought after American bookplate engravers of his time.

Very Good / No Dust Jacket As Issued. Item #17482

Limited to 250 copies (plus 6 on vellum) Printed in the Vale Type in black and red, on page 1 the Vale Monogram in red; on page 2-5 and 19-19 ruled in red. The paragraph mark was designed by Pissarro and engraved by Ricketts.

Pissarro was to have printed the whole work, but due to ill-health he only completed the first 8 pages with the rest completed by Ricketts.

[Vale Press] The Rowley Poems
Chatterton, Thomas (Robert Steele, ed.)
Published by Hacon & Ricketts, Vale Press, London, 1898

First edition thus. Two volumes. Original color pictorial paper covered boards (two-toned) with red-brown patterned design at the spine, and green decorated paper over most of the boards in a repeating flower and vine pattern, printed paper labels on both spines. 210 copies, cover design, exquisite full-page decorated title pages in each volume, intricate initials throughout, all by Charles Ricketts. A difficult title to find, especially in fine condition. Our copy is exemplary, very fine, with very light browntoning to endsheets and first free fly which is almost universally seen in abundance. Seller Inventory # 3535

Vale Press Rowley Poems

Lyrical Poems of Shelley.
[BOUND FOR BUMPUS LTD]. VALE PRESS. SHELLEY.
Published by Printed at the Ballantyne Press under the supervision of Charles Ricketts and sold by Hacon & Ricketts, London, 1898

[Vale Press] The Poems of John Keats [together with] The Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Keats, John and Percy Bysshe Shelley
Published by Hacon and Ricketts, The Vale Press, London, 1902

First editions thus. Tall 8vo. Two separate titles, five total volumes (two Keats, three Shelley). A superb set of both Vale Press titles, sold here together, since bound similar, and obviously stored safely together by the same owner, as all five volumes in fine condition. Bound in publisher’s original beige smooth buckram cloth. Borders, initials and decorations, including a full-page decorative title in each volume of the Shelley, and double-page title spread in the Keats, by Charles Ricketts. Spine as near to original hue as ever seen. Browning to prelims in the Keats, but no browning in the three Shelley volumes, amazingly. Shelley all three volumes unopened.The finest set we have seen in some time. Seller Inventory # 3497

Blake, William (1757–1827)

Poetical Sketches [Vale Press]

London: Vale Press: Printed at the Ballantyne Press, sold by Hacon and Ricketts, 1899. Limited to 210 copies; 200 for sale and 8 on vellum.

Rebound from original signatures. Cloth matches the original; Original paste-on spine and front corner title labels. No flaws to the new bindings and the original text on hand-made paper is clean and bright. The endpages are a complimentary marble.

Ricketts chose to follow Rossetti’s edition of 1874 printing ‘Samson’ as blank verse and reprinting ‘Advertisement’, the text attributed to Reverend A. S. Matthews. The illustration which forms part o the engraved title-page is a symbolic representation of Spring, echoed in the design enclosed within the ornamental initial O.

+++ Topography: Vale Type.
+++ Ornaments: ‘Hero and Leander’ Border, Half Border (p.xiv); initials O8, S6, T13; especially designed for this work testifying of Ricketts’s admiration for Blake’s works. The ‘S’ is a woodcut that runs over 19 lines of text, measuring 89×43 mm. It is one of the larger initials that Ricketts designed.
+++ Illustration: Center Illustration for frontispiece, woodblock of single piece with traces of photographic image. Designed and cut on wood by Charles Ricketts. The floral half-border not previously used.

Fine / No Dust Jacket As Issued. Item #17622

The poetical sketches were presented in prose, however, the Vale Press edition has arranged them as poems.

The issue sold quickly and was valued by collectors of Blake.

Ref: Watley B22; L’Art 42; Gallatin 25; Steele 10; Ricketts xxv; Capelleveen

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. London: Ballantyne Press, sold by Hacon & Ricketts [Vale Press], 1899. Printed in Vale type in red & black. Limited to 220 unnumbered copies (incl. 10 on vellum), this being one of the 210 on Arnold’s handmade paper. Opening on a large laurel border and decorated with large initials and small ornaments in text by Charles Ricketts. Blue paper boards, lettered labels on front cover and spine. Top edge trimmed, others uncut. Measures approx. 5.25″ x 8″. Some light browning and soiling to spine, light wear to spine tips and corners. Small bookshop label to bottom of front pastedown, small bookplate to upper corner of front pastedown. Offsetting to endpapers, per usual.

[VALE PRESS]; ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel.Hand and Soul. London, Hacon & Ricketts [The Vale Press], 1899

$354.00

An attractive edition of Rossetti’s short story reflecting his philosophy on art & spirituality, originally published in The Germ in January of 1850.

One of 210 copies; 16mo (150 x 110 mm); printed in black & red, woodcut decorations and initials; publisher’s powder blue boards, printed title label to upper board and spine, spine slightly browned, some minor marking, but overall very good.

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS AND THE LOVER’S COMPLAIN; THE VALE SHAKESPEARE. (Vale Press). Shakespeare, William. London: sold by Hacon & Ricketts, printed at the Ballantyne Press under the supervision of Charles Ricketts, 1903.
8vo
publisher’s green blind-stamped cloth.
69, (2) pages

First Vale Press edition, first impression. From the Vale Press edition of Shakespeare’s Plays. (Watry, B44/36). Partially unopened. Minor bump to the bottom corner of the front board, else a fine copy. Very scarce. The decorations were designed by Charles Ricketts (1866-1931), a publisher, designer, and wood engraver who readily embraced the printing revival which propagated the ideals of the arts-and-crafts movement: “The novelty of a book, made during the recent revival, lies in the fact that it shows design in each portion of it, from type to paper, and from ‘build’ to decoration. Therein lies the difference between a book so understood and any other modern book printed before 1891.”. Franklin, p. 81; Ransom, p. 437.

The Centaur. The Bacchante. Translated from the French. by T. S. Moore.VALE PRESS. GUÉRIN, Maurice de. Published by printed at the Ballantyne Press, published by Hacon & Ricketts, 1889]., [London, 1889

First edition, one of 150 unnumbered copies on Arnold’s hand-made paper (of which 140 were for sale). All the woodblocks and vellum copies were burnt in the Ballantyne Press fire of December 1899. This copy is from the library of Uranian poet and publisher Francis Edwin Murray. Tall 8vo (230 × 130 mm), pp. 35, [3], illustrated by Thomas Sturge Moore with 5 woodcuts, and by Charles Ricketts with a half-border on the first page of each text, small ornaments in text and one full-page printer’s device on last page. Original white cloth, gilt lettered spine. Slightly soiled, some browning to the endpapers. Bookplate of Francis Edwin Murray. A very good copy. [Watry B28; Ransom, Vale Press, 28; Tomkinson, Vale Press, 28]. Seller Inventory # 8270