COMUS, A Mask.

Limited edition, number 60 of 150 copies printed on vellum. Small octavo. Publisher's original full vellum with decorative rose device and the words "soul is form" in blind to the upper board and with titles in gilt to the spine. Hand-coloured woodblock frontispiece by Reginald Savage. Illuminated by hand with a large opening gilt initial and with other initials in red and gilt throughout by Florence Kingsford. Hand-coloured tailpiece on the colophon. The text printed in blue and black. Contained within a custom quarter vellum solander box by Asprey. A fine copy, the binding square and tight, the vellum clean. The contents with the very occasional spot of natural toning to the vellum are otherwise immaculate throughout. The solander box with a little marking and a minor stain to the head of the spine is otherwise in very good order. A splendid copy.

An elegant edition of Milton's masque in honour of chastity, first performed on Michaelmas in 1634, beautifully printed at C.R. Ashbee's Essex House Press and illuminated by Kate Florence Kingsford Cockerel (1871-1949), one of the leading illuminators of the Arts and Crafts movement. Kingsford learned the techniques of medieval manuscript illumination whilst studying at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, later developing her practice as a student of master calligrapher Edward Johnston. After producing her magnificent edition of The Song of Songs for the Ashendene Press, she began working for the Essex House Press, founded by Charles Robert Ashbee and Laurence Hodson following the closure of William Morris's Kelmscott Press in 1897, with the aim of continuing its Arts and Crafts ethos. Between 1901 and 1904, she contributed decorative initials in colours and gilt to a number of limited-edition books published by the press, each featuring a single long poem printed on vellum. The present work is the eighth in this 'great poems' series.

Stock code: 20465

£1,875

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