22. 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.
est. £1500 – £2000
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).