CALVERT (Edward)
Ten Spiritual Designs Enlarged from Proofs of the Originals on Copper, Wood and Stone MDCCCXXVII - MDCCCXXXI
Fine, jacket faded to spine and with a small chip to head of upper panel, slipcase faded and rubbed at extremities, partially unopened. The special copies of Mosher books printed on Japanese vellum are rarely found in their original paper bindings, and almost never in such fine unrestored condition
A strikingly well-preserved example of one of the most typographically successful of Mosher’s publications, which appeared as item number 8 in the Grolier club’s exhibition ‘A Century for The Century,’ a selection of 100 of the finest printed books of the 20th century. Mosher established something of a reputation for issuing reprints of work without feeling it strictly necessary to obtain the permission of those who owned the rights, leading to his earning the delightful nickname ‘The Pirate Prince of Portland’: Ten Spiritual Designs is a typical example, with the Calvert prints reproduced from photographs, portions of the text taken from the Century Guild Hobby Horse, and even the initial letters pilfered from Pissarro’s Eragny Press.