The Life of Saint David.

Bookseller Notes

An exquisite book, the hand-coloured wood-engravings, coloured by the bindery women under the direction of Bray, a new departure for the press, and the first book from the press to include in the colophon the name of the accomplished pressman, Herbert John Hodgson. 'This slim quarto, the bravest experiment in illustration so far, was the first book to be printed on damp hand-made paper... Maynard had only recently learned the technique through a chance remark made to him by Bernard Newdigate of the Shakespeare Head Press.' (Harrop). The title-page vignette was translated from a small brass of Saint David which had only been discovered in Hereford Cathedral a few months before the book's production, a rubbing taken in person by Maynard and Bray. (The Miss Margaret Sidney Davies Complete Collection of Special Gregynog Bindings, De Zilverdistel, 1995)