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Bannet, Ivor; Webb, Clifford (illus.); Greenhill, Mina (illus.).
The Amazons.
Publisher: The Golden Cockerel Press, [London:]
Date of Publication: 1948
Stock Code: 10103
Limited editoon of 500 copies only of which this is No. 255. Quarto, pp., 252, [2]. With frontispiece, 12 wood-engravings by Clifford Webb, and 3 full page maps by Mina Greenhill. Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in brown half morocco and marbled paper over boards; gilt titles and gilt cockerel ornament to spine; top edge gilt; with “S & S” binder’s stamp to front paste-down. Corners rubbed; boards softened to centre of fore-edge; minor spots to boards. Toning to margins. A near-fine copy. The first appearance of Bannet’s historical romance, The Amazons, in print. Bannet wrote of the engravings by Clifford Webb in 1947 ‘They are lovely. They seem to me to be far the best you have done so far, for the Cockerel or anyone else... One good thing about them is that each is a picture on its own: though they all combined & are good illustrations, they are not merely such but good as pictures too...’ (Quoted in Cave & Manson, 196). Production lasted from 1945 to the summer of 1949, during which time the run of the edition was shrunk from 750 to 500 copies, and spiralling inflation led to losses for the press, compounded by sluggish sales. Despite being a commercial failure, Bannet wrote in 1949, in what would be his last surviving letter ‘The paper, the lay-out, the spacing, the type, the binding - all are perfect, and a harmony of perfection too. How rare that is... I did not realise before how beautiful a book could be’ (Quoted in Cave & Manson, 196). £200.00