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The Eclogues of Vergil

Item date(s): 1927

Aristide Maillol  - (illustrated by)
J. H. Mason  - (translated by)
Virgil  - (author)
Eric Gill  - (title page and letters by)
Emery Walker  - (supervised by)
Count Harry Kessler  - (setting and printing by)


Pages: 110pp
Size: 337mm
Edition: #83/225


Place publication: Weimar, Germany
Publisher: Cranach Press
Cat. 005 - MM2
Exhibition 2017

Additional notes:
In the original Latin with an English prose translation by J. H. Mason & with illustrations drawn and cut on the wood by Aristide Maillol.

The English edition consists of six copies on vellum; thirty-three copies on imperial Japanese paper; two hundred and twenty-five copies on hand-made paper of pure hemp fibre and linen. There are also a German and French edition.

Count Harry Kessler planned the format of this volume, Aristide Maillol designed and cut on wood the forty-three illustrations, during the years 1912-1914 and in 1925, at Banyuls in the Pyrenees. He drew on his immediate neighbourhood and on his personal acquaintances for certain of the motives of his illustrations. Eric Gill cut the head-line of the title-page of the Eclogues (German edition) in 1914, the lettering on the circular press-mark in 1924, and ll the initial letters (white on black) except those on pp 74 and 75. The ornament of these letters was designed and drawn by Maillol. The head-line of the title-page of the Eclogues for the English edition was cut by Eric Gill in 1927. Aristide Maillol cut the decoration on the title-page and the press-mark. Edward Prince cut the punches for the type, under the supervision of Emery Walker. The roman type was cut after that used in Venice by Nicolas Jenson in 1473. The italic type was designed by Edward Johnson. The paper was made by Gaspard Maillol, in a workshop set up for that purpose at Monval near Marly. It was made by a special hand-process devised in joint research by Count Harry Kessler and Aristile and Gaspard Maillol.

Printing of the German edition was begun on the hand-press of the CRANACH PRESS at WEIMAR early in 1914. the work was interrupted by the Great War. It was resumed in June 1925. The English edition was printed in 1927.

Count Harry Kessler and J. H. Mason supervised the work of setting the type and printing.

Published in England for the Cranach Press by Emery Walker Limited, 16 Clifford's Inn, London, E. C.

Housed in a drop-back box, red quarter leather with grey marbled covers by Peter Carstens of Johannesburg.

Ursus Rare Books Holiday Miscellany 2012. Item 36.

Artists & Books 1900-Present. Ursus Books, New York, 2014. Item 30.

References:

Ransom 163 ("landmark of the movement").

Müller-Krumback 40 (reproducing both binding and title page).

Art of the Printed Book. p.38 and plate 110.

Artist and the Book 172. Rewald.

The Woodcuts of Maillol 8-53.

Evan Gill, no. 328. Johnson.

Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870-2000, No 49.

Exhibition notes:
Item 005 - MM2 on Booknesses: Artists' books from the Jack Ginsberg Collection.

UJ Art Gallery, University of Johannesburg

25 March to 5 May 2017



Ref: GB/13701











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