From the library of William Randolph Hearst, last seen in auction records at the sale of his library in 1938 through the Parke Bernet auction house, with his discreet paper label identifying cabinet and shelf numbers pasted to the rear free endpaper of each volume.
Stikeman was one of the leading American bookbinders at the end of the nineteenth and turn of the twentieth centuries, and, although he often tended towards elaborate ornamentation, the external decoration of this binding is sympathetically restrained to better accompany the bold minimalism of the Doves Bible, with elaboration reserved for the doublures.
Cobden-Sanderson wrote in his farewell publication from the Doves Press: “The English Bible is a supreme achievement of English Literature” and his Doves Bible is a supreme achievement of English typography. It is a triumphant work, considered to be the magnum opus of the Dove’s Press. Colin Franklin exclaims: “Nothing is so stark and pure, such unbending art as the Dove’s Bible”. Johnston’s initials are an intrinsic part of the text rather than straight decoration, and their pure beauty completes rather than adds to the whole. Here we have probably the greatest example of his work with the opening great red ‘I’ of Genesis which Ransom describes as “a pattern for all time of complexity reduced to the minimum of simplicity”
Corners and joints slightly rubbed, joint of upper cover on vol.1 just starting at head and tail, slight scuffs to covers, the first gathering slightly foxed as always due to a flaw in the batch of paper used when printing, but rather better in this copy than is usually seen, otherwise internally bright and clean, slight mark of finger soiling to foredge of preliminary leaves of vol. 1.
