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Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
GOUDY, FREDERIC. Ecclesiastes or the Preacher. Illuminated manuscript. 50 pages of hand-calligraphed text with illustrated borders and initial letters on vellum, in watercolor, gouache, and ink, heightened throughout in gold. [4], [50], [2] pages. 8vo, Islamic binding in brown calf and gold paint, with gilt-detailed colored calf doublures featuring central medallions, worn and rubbed; contents a bit shaken with preliminaries becoming loose, showing separation along title-page gutter. initialed by goudy on the title-page. Np, circa 1890
scarce, early handmade book by the great typographer and type designer. Possibly created in Chicago where he was working in the 1890s and began his Camelot Press which published The Chap Book, his first attempt at printing and book design. Soon thereafter, with his wife Bertha and fellow designer Will Ransom, he created The Village Press in Oak Ridge, Illinois. It moved to Boston, New York City, and finally, to Marlborough-on-Hudson. The lettering in the manuscript is double point and in a somewhat Roman style, perhaps as an experimental exercise for his early type designs Camelot and the Goudy text family of fonts. The line and page breaks, especially the borders around the text, are quite detailed and often elaborate, rich with decorative scrolls, floral motifs, and numerous figurative portraits that have an Arts and Crafts, pre-Raphaelite feel to them. Much gold paint is used throughout to highlight these figures and designs. A beautiful, elaborate, and unique work that displays the early creativity of one of the most important and prolific figures in the world of type design.
