GREGYNOG PRESS. BURNE-JONES, Edward. BRIDGES, Robert. ~ Eros and Psyche. A Poem in XII Measures by Robert Bridges.
24 woodcuts after the designs by Edward Burne-Jones, redrawn by Loyd Haberly and Dorothy Hawkesley (5 cut on wood by Haberly and 19 by R. John Beedham), initial letters designed by Graily Hewitt and printed in green. 7 of the woodcuts have been delicated hand-coloured possibly by Eric Sweet. One of 300 copies. Text printed in red and black in the newly designed Gregynog type designed by Hewitt on Batchelor hand-made paper. 4to., original white pigskin, blocked circular design in gilt on upper cover, spine hand tooled in gilt, t.e.g., others uncut, housed in a later blue and orange buckram clamshell box with a printed paper spine label. A very bright, clean copy, pigskin with some soiling as is usual.
Burne-Jones’s images stand up well in this production, obviously helped by the skill of Beedham &c. Hewitt’s green initials are as fine as anything he did for the Ashendene Press.
Haberly chose Bridges’ narrative poem, first published in 1885, for this book because of its strong romantic and tragic themes which lent themselves to illustration. The poem tells the story of Eros, or Cupid, and the beautiful Psyche. Burne-Jones had made drawings for William Morris’s verse rendering of the ‘Story of Cupid and Psyche’ for his illustrated edition of twenty-four stories of The Earthly Paradise which was never completed. The original drawings were in the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford and these woodcuts were made directly from these drawings.
From the collection of Eric Sweet, calligrapher, typographer, printer and bookbinder who finished his career as Head of the Birmingham School of Printing.