De la typographie et de l’harmonie de la page imprimée. William Morris et son influence sur les arts et métiers.

Hacon & Ricketts, London, 1898

One of only 216 printed copies of this important book about book design on the threshold between the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau.

Description: Half printed paper with 'wild rose' design in green and pink. Printed label on spine. Octavo: 20 × 13 cm; pp. [4] blank, [31], [5] blank. Printed from ‘Vale’ type in black and red on Arnold’s unbleached hand-made paper with Vale watermark. Paragraph marks designed by Pissaro and engraved by Ricketts. With ‘Vale’ monogram in red on p. 1.

Provenance: Bookplate of Jean Grès on the front pastedown. The woodcut (12 × 10 cm), dated 1928, was cut by the artist Robert Lanz (Paris, 1896 – Geneva, 1965).

Ref.: Ricketts p. 23; Watry B16

Condition: Boards slightly rubbed and stained. Label on spine with losses. Front and rear flyleaves slightly browned. A browned area on pages 30–31, probably caused by a paper bookmark. Otherwise internally in very good condition. Despite the somewhat modest condition of the bindings, still a very well preserved copy.

Notes: Of the two essays included in the book, the first is an essay by Ricketts and Pissarro on good book design and the second is an appreciation of the work of William Morris and its influence on their own work. The exclusive focus on William Morris, the statement in the colophon that Pissarro began work on this book in 1897, and the use of French for the text all suggest that Pissarro is the primary author of De la Typographie. Pissarro was supposed to have printed the entire work, but due to ill health only the first eight pages were actually set by him, leaving Ricketts to complete the work. Information about the edition varies: While in the book the edition is given as 256, of which 6 on vellum, in his bibliography Ricketts writes of 250 copies and 10 on vellum. Watry, on the other hand, gives an edition of 216.