Spine slightly faded as usual, otherwise fine.
‘The bravest experiment in illustration so far’ (Harrop, p.43) for the Gregynog Press, with the first use by the press of hand-coloured wood engraving, resulting in illustrations which are ‘apt and charming and delicately and subtly coloured.’ Rather surprisingly, Maynard also confessed in a letter to St. John Hornby that the book ‘represents our fist effort on damped paper, and we encountered considerable difficulty in getting the three printings to register’; as incredible as it seems, Maynard had only recently discovered the technique of printing on damp paper ‘through a chance remark made to him by Bernard Newdigate’ (Harrop). The regular binding, as on this copy, was also the first and only book bound in limp vellum by the Gregynog Bindery.
The result of this experimentation was a book which at once stands out from other Gregynog titles, but which still shares a certain spirit; the illustrations sit harmoniously with the Poliphilus type, while the calligraphic paragraph marks in red pleasingly call to mind the work of Edward Johnston, and the ‘title-page is an admirable example of restrained design’ (Harrop).
