GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS. GILL, Eric. ~ The Song of Songs called by many the Canticle of Canticles.
No. 14 of only 30 special copies, with hand coloured engravings and signed by Eric Gill and Robert Gibbings, the artist and printer. 20 hand coloured wood engravings by Gill. Printed in Caslon in black and red. 26.2 x 19.8 cms, bound in full white buckram with a gilt bird by Gill on the upper cover, gilt lettering on spine.
A really fine copy of the rare special of the Song of Songs. It has a tiny ownership inscription of Thomas Balston and a tipped in letter to him from Robert Gibbings himself on Golden Cockerel headed paper dated 9-10-35. In it he notes Balston's new standing order and give details the books he should get immediately as well as letting him know about the impending Gill Song of Songs which Gibbings describes as "damn fine".
He offers him one of the 30 specials which Balston obviously bought very quickly.
Thomas Balston as the director of the publisher Duckworth and Co. and a scholar of book production and illustration. At Duckworth’s he was very well known for promoting the art of English wood engravers and wrote several books on the subject. He became close to Gibbings and in 1960 wrote the catalogue for the Gibbings Memorial Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.