GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS. GILL, Eric. ~ The Song of Songs, called by many the Canticle of Canticles.
20 wood engravings by Eric Gill. One of 750 copies. Printed in black and red in Caslon Old Face type. Pp. 44. 4to., original white buckram. A very good copy, free endpapers slightly browned as usual.
Chanticleer announces that at this point ‘Eric Gill has come to work only for the Golden Cockerel Press’ - the beginning of a great collaboration. The wood engravings here are very beautiful and strong. Gill once wrote that he refuted the notion that because it is about love-making and the charms of women, the Song of Songs is irreligious. The problem he notes is that “the Song of Solomon is a love song, and one of a very outspoken kind, and in modern England such things are not considered polite”. His images are certainly gently erotic but embued with sensual love and tenderness and intended as a celebration of Divine Love.
The introduction to the book by Gibbings asserts it’s morality, stating that “The Song of Songs must...be regarded as the first Opera...a protest against polygamous ideals, of which Solomon had given such striking examples...monogamy is contrasted as natural, dewy as the young day, inspiring as the sounds and scents of spring.”
Booklabel and small ownership inscription of Guy Horne (Major William Guy Horne) and later one of David Wickham.