GREGYNOG PRESS. JONES, Thomas Gwynn. ~ Detholiad o Ganiadau gan T. Gwynn Jones.
No. 10 of 26 specially bound copies. 9 head and tailpieces engraved on wood by R.A. Maynard. Printed in Kennerley type on Dutch hand-made paper. 8vo., bound by George Fisher to a design by Horace Bray, full blue levant morocco with double blind ruled squares on both sides with small gilt circles at the intersections with a gilt border on each side, from the spine edge springs a pattern of varying length gilt rules each terminating in small gilt circles, spine with raised bands borders with double gilt bands, gilt titling, turn-ins with gilt and blind rules, signed in gilt on the lower turn-in, tope edge gilt. Very mild offset from turn-ins to free endpapers, otherwise an extremely good, bright, unblemished copy housed in a later blue cloth chemise and slipcase. An exceptionally fine copy.
An excellent demonstration of the skilled forwarding and precision tooling of one of the finest craftsmen of his time,
George Fisher (1879-1970) was born to a family of blacksmiths. He was first employed by a wealthy amateur binder to help with forwarding and then took up an apprenticeship at Rivière where he became a finisher, tooling thousands of books and attending classes with Douglas Cockerell. From 1902 he was the finisher at the bindery run by Alice Pattinson and Miss Hoffman. He left in 1907 to set up his own workshop but it failed adn he ended up doing little bits of work until, in 1924, Douglas Cockerell recommended him to take charge of the Gregynog Press Bindery. It gave him plenty of work and an opportunity to shine with the limited number of each book they published being sold in a special binding by Fisher. His skill and careful work were among the best demonstrations of British binding of the first half of the 20th century.