Wednesday, August 7, 2013

106. Brother Printer

In The Grolier Club, last July, I saw a copy of Ricketts's posthumous publication, Recollections of Oscar Wilde (1932).

The book is printed by George W. Jones at the Dolphin Press, in Linotype Granjon type, on Van Gelder paper, in an edition of 800 copies. Most copies are numbered, but there are some unnumbered copies, one of which was listed by Claude Cox in his catalogue 99 (1993). This particular copy was 'out of series for review'.

Other unnumbered copies ended up in copyright libraries, such as the Bodleian Library (shelf mark 2696. d 214). 

Complimentary copies were also among the unnumbered ones; the artist and poet Thomas Sturge Moore had a copy like that, and another example can be found in The Grolier Club's collection.

Charles Ricketts, Recollections of Oscar Wilde (1932): colophon of a copy in the Grolier Club, New York
It has the 'out of series' note handwritten by 'F.M.', Francis Meynell, the designer and publisher of the book for the Nonesuch Press.

Dedication from Francis Meynell to Geo W. Jones in Charles Ricketts, Recollections of Oscar Wilde (1932) [Grolier Club, New York]
In the front of the book is a handwritten dedication from the designer/publisher to the printer: 'To Brother Printer / with the regards and thanks of / the Fidgetter of types / Francis Meynell / July / 1932'.
Brother Printer... A book dealer has annotated this in pencil to explain the identity of the 'brother'...

[For my visit to the Grolier Club, see also blog 105: An Attack on the Defence of the Revival of Printing.]