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Soft cover, 12mo, in suede wraps, blind stamped with two labels to front, the titles gilt within the frames. Printed on handmade watermarked Roycrofter paper, frontispiece portrait of Byron after a painting by Kramer. Letter press printed at the Roycroft Workshop in East Aurora. features maroon silk doublures inside wraps, the limitation page printed in red and signed in old fountain pen by Hubbard, hand-colored title page withwood carved Arts and Crafts printed border, and matching decorative, hand-colored initial caps through out the text, also side notes and other small typographic decoration as footers and the like. Top edge trimmed, others untrimmed. [8], 27 - 56 pp. Printer's colophon, in red, lists Samuel Warner as typeographer and designer. Pagination suggests this was abstracted as an offprint from a larger version; there were a number of English Authors in the series. **Subject, the poet Baron George Gordon Byron (1788-1824). **CONDITION: Very Good plus, or better. Generally clean and sound. Paper mildly toned. Moderate offset to page following title, and opposite the decorative caps. Christmas gift inscription dated 1900 to ffep in old fountain pen. One inch long scratch to front of wrap and some sunning to rear. This series by Hubbard and the Roycrofters has been called an important American re-interpretation of the work of British designer William Morris, and indeed like Morris, the workshop produced an extensive line of hancrafted homewares in addition to books. Susan Otis Thompson says that Hubbard employed up to four hundred people at a time, and illuminating the books was part of the work of that group. "Books in limited editions were issued steadily, and sold well, thanks to both the public's recognition that these were "artistic " books for the common man and to the enormous impact of Hubbard's controversial personality. He traveled over the country, delivering public lectures, dressed in a picturesque costume probably based, at least in part, on Morris' habitual attire." S.O. Thompson, American Book Design and William Morris, (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1996.) p. 171. OCLC 1942201.
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