Lot 22C email save

Song of Songs,ill.Gill,h.col.,G.Cock,1925

Song of Songs (The) called by many the Canticle of Canticles,

number 14 of 30 special copies signed by the artist and printer (Robert Gibbings), from an edition limited to 750, printed in red and black, wood-engraved illustrations by Eric Gill, all hand-coloured, with initialled autograph letter from Gibbings to Thomas Balston tipped in at beginning, signed by Balston on front free endpaper, and with 2 proof engravings from the book, one numbered 7/12 and signed by "Eric G", loosely inserted, original cream buckram, gilt, t.e.g., others uncut, slightly soiled, [Chanticleer 31], 4to, Waltham St.Lawrence, Golden Cockerel Press, 1925.

***Gibbings's letter concerns Balston's standing order subscription to the press and refers to the Song of Songs as "damn fine". The proofs are of the illustrations on p.28 & 39 and are uncoloured. Thomas Balston was a writer on prints and wood-engraving and a close friend of Gibbings. He wrote the first book about him, The Wood-Engravings of Robert Gibbings, published in 1949 (in lot 219)..