MILTON, JOHN | Paradise Lost [&] Paradise Regain'd. Hammersmith: The Doves Press, 1902, 1905

Property from a Florida Collector

MILTON, JOHN

Paradise Lost [&] Paradise Regain'd. Hammersmith: The Doves Press, 1902, 1905

Together 2 volumes, small 4to. Printed in red and black on vellum. Gilt-titled limp vellum by The Doves Bindery. Fleece-lined full morocco case with cloth chemises. Lovely copies.

The Saks copy

One of 25 on vellum from a total edition of 325 copies

Founded by Sir Emery Walker and bookbinder T.J. Cobden-Sanderson in 1900, The Doves Press books with their beautifully cut typography and the spaciousness of the layouts, were a main inspiration for the revival of private-press printing in the 20th century.

By 1909, Walker and Cobden-Sanderson were embroiled in a long and bitter dispute involving the rights to the Doves Type as they dissolved their partnership. In the dissolution agreement, all rights to the distinctive typeface were meant to pass to Walker upon the death of Cobden-Sanderson. But on Good Friday of 1913, Cobden-Sanderson destroyed the matrices by casting them off Hammersmith Bridge and into the Thames. He began destroying the types in August of 1916, and apparently completed the task in January 1917. Indeed, over the course of about 170 trips, Cobden-Sanders—a small, frail, seventy-six year old man—managed to carry more than a ton of type from 15 Upper Mall to the Thames. In 2015, designer Robert Green—with help from the Port of London Authority—was able to recover 150 pieces of the original type from the waters near Hammersmith Bridge.

The present work is one of Walker and Cobden-Sanderson's earlier productions, and certainty one of the highlight of the Doves Press. Inlaid into this copy of Paradise is a receipt from Chicago publisher and bookseller A.C. McClurg, dated 16 December 1902, recording a purchase price of $125 for the book.

PROVENANCE:

B. Caldwell (recorded on an inlaid bookseller's receipt as the purchaser in 1902) — John Saks (his sale, Christie's New York, 22 May 1981, lot 300)