?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 40,000 - $ 50,000
ONE OF ONLY TWELVE VELLUM COPIES (GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS.) The Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the authorized version of King James I. 18-point Golden Cockerel Face type; 65 wood-engraved illustrations by Eric Gill, including 4 full-page plates. Folio, publisher's gilt-decorated white pigskin with two metal clasps, bound by sangorski & sutcliffe, only minor natural discoloration and slight rust to hinges and clasps; all edges gilt; felt-lined gilt-lettered tan buckram clamshell box, unevenly browned, some rubbing. Waltham Saint Lawrence: Printed by Robert and Moira Gibbings, 1931
number eleven of only twelve copies printed on roman vellum and one of the most important fine press books produced in the 20th century. The 1931 Golden Cockerel Press edition of the Four Gospels set the text of the King James Gospels into a masterly example of book design. Gill integrated the text and illustrations into a modern homage to the tradition of illuminated text. "Conceived in the fruitful mind of Robert Gibbings, this is the Golden Cockerel book usually compared with the Doves Bible and the Kelmscott Chaucer. A flower among the best products of English romantic genius, it is also surely, thanks to its illustrator, Eric Gill, the book among all books in which Roman type has been best mated with any kind of illustration"--Chanticleer 78; From Manet to Hockney 89; E.R. Gill, Eric Gill, 285.
