GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS.


GILL, ERIC. 1882-1940. The Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ.... Waltham Saint Lawrence: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1931. Folio (331 x 231 mm). 65 wood-engraved illustrations, headpieces, and illustrated initials by Eric Gill. Original white half-pigskin over cloth, spine gilt, top edge gilt, other edges uncut, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, minor rubbing to spine, light toning to cloth at upper margin, rubbing at corners.LIMITED EDITION, number 14 of 488 copies. "...THE GOLDEN COCKEREL BOOK USUALLY COMPARED WITH THE DOVES BIBLE AND THE KELMSCOTT CHAUCER" (Chanticleer 78). Eric Gill's finest book and a modern masterpiece of typography, illustration and book production. "The Four Gospels goes back into the history of printed books and manuscripts, joining two arts with unique success. That is the balance he achieved, greater than the even weight of engraving and type. In early illumination, one finds no frontier between decoration and illustration. The work of the artist surrounded the text, explained and ornamented it - sometimes within scrolls and borders, sometimes in historiated initials; and as calligraphy is itself a kind of illustration to explain meaning, text and picture formed one thing" (Franklin The Private Presses, p 142). A fine copy of Eric Gill's greatest work, and a high spot of 20th-century book design and execution. Artist and the Book 122; Manet to Hockney 89.