THE STORY OF THE AFANC KING AND THE SONS OF TEYRNON

First edition, first printing. The binder's copy. Original black quarter cloth with illustrated paper covered boards, titles in gilt to the upper board. Quarto. 28pp. Illustrated with a frontispiece, three further full page etched linocuts and chapter headings by Sara Philpott. Title page printed in black and red. Designed and printed letterpress by David Vickers. Bound by Stephen Conway. A fine copy, the binding square, firm and bright. The contents are clean throughout.

Issued in a limited edition of just 200 copies, this example is the binder's retained copy, un-numbered but inscribed "Binder's Copy" and signed by Stephen Conway in pencil to the limitation page. A tale of two brothers, rival princes, who encounter a supernatural other-world while out hunting. The author Christopher Meredith was a steelworker and schoolteacher before becoming a lecturer at the University of Glamorgan. He has won numerous awards and bursaries, and he has served as a judge for such major competitions as the Welsh Book of the Year award and the Roland Mathias Prize. Sara Philpott is a painter and printmaker who studied at the Central School of Art and Design before moving to mid Wales, where the Welsh landscape and her children's early years strongly influenced her work, and allowed her the freedom to explore different print-making techniques. She has exhibited widely in the UK since 1985, including Christies Contemporary Art in London and Japan. Her work with fine press publishers exists in many collections including the Contemporary Art Society of Wales. The images for 'The Afanc King' are not intended to be literal illustrations of the text but rather suggestive of the atmosphere of the realms that this mythic story moves through. Aiming to convey the multi-layered realities of a tale that is constantly 'breaking the skin between one world and another', in Christopher Meredith's words, she uses the language of symbol to explore such themes as transformation (associated with the element of water), isolation (island existence) and destination (homeland). For her, the texture of the blocks has the feel of Welsh stone carvings and of ancient artefacts that resonate through the tonal quality of the etched lino.