Urne Buriall and the Garden of Cyrus
- London: Curwen Press for cassell & Co, 1932
London: Curwen Press for cassell & Co, 1932. NASH, Paul. London: Curwen Press for Cassell & Co., 1932.
One of 215 numbered copies, this being number 107. Folio (12 x 8 11/16 inches; 304 x 220 mm). xx, 146 pp. With thirty-two full-color illustrations, including fifteen full page plates, colored through stencils at the Curwen Press over a lithographic key (printed by Charles Whittingham and Griggs).
Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in a design by Paul Nash in full vellum with a large inlay of brown goatskin with two vellum onlays and tooled with a gilt design of an urn and a quincuncial lozenge. Back cover tooled in gilt with morocco onlays, also in the shape of an urn and a quincuncial lozenge. All edges gilt. Spine very lightly dust-soiled. Small bookseller’s label on back pastedown. In publisher’s cloth slipcase. Overall about fine in the secondary binding, as usual.
This justly famous book was published during the height of the depression, when the market for deluxe books was in a severe slump, as witnessed by the troubles of the Nonesuch Press and the near-bankruptcy of Douglas Cleverdon. As a result only some sixty copies were sold at the time of publication, bound by the firm of Nevetts Ltd. The balance were remaindered as unbound sheets and bound, over a period of many years by Sangorski and Sutcliffe.
The illustrations represent the crowning achievement of the Curwen Press's use of the pochoir technique (the application of colors, in this case watercolor, through stencils). Although widespread in France, the method was extensively used in England only by the Curwen Press, who produced some half-dozen important books. Urne Buriall is widely accepted as Paul Nash's masterpiece in book illustration and as one of the finest illustrated books produced in England this century.
HBS 69475.
$8,500.
One of 215 numbered copies, this being number 107. Folio (12 x 8 11/16 inches; 304 x 220 mm). xx, 146 pp. With thirty-two full-color illustrations, including fifteen full page plates, colored through stencils at the Curwen Press over a lithographic key (printed by Charles Whittingham and Griggs).
Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in a design by Paul Nash in full vellum with a large inlay of brown goatskin with two vellum onlays and tooled with a gilt design of an urn and a quincuncial lozenge. Back cover tooled in gilt with morocco onlays, also in the shape of an urn and a quincuncial lozenge. All edges gilt. Spine very lightly dust-soiled. Small bookseller’s label on back pastedown. In publisher’s cloth slipcase. Overall about fine in the secondary binding, as usual.
This justly famous book was published during the height of the depression, when the market for deluxe books was in a severe slump, as witnessed by the troubles of the Nonesuch Press and the near-bankruptcy of Douglas Cleverdon. As a result only some sixty copies were sold at the time of publication, bound by the firm of Nevetts Ltd. The balance were remaindered as unbound sheets and bound, over a period of many years by Sangorski and Sutcliffe.
The illustrations represent the crowning achievement of the Curwen Press's use of the pochoir technique (the application of colors, in this case watercolor, through stencils). Although widespread in France, the method was extensively used in England only by the Curwen Press, who produced some half-dozen important books. Urne Buriall is widely accepted as Paul Nash's masterpiece in book illustration and as one of the finest illustrated books produced in England this century.
HBS 69475.
$8,500.