JOURNAL OF THE PRINTING-OFFICE AT STRAWBERRY HILL, Now first printed form the MS. of Horace Walpole, With notes by Paget Toynbee M.A. D.Litt.
London: Printed at The Chiswick Press for Constable and Company Limited, 1923. First Edition. Hardcover. Limited to 650 copies. Record of the first private press in England, which Walpole (1717-97) established at his London villa in 1757. The first book issued from the press was an edition of the Odes of Thomas Gray, Walpole’s old schoolfriend. Amongst Walpole’s own works printed here were the Mysterious Mother (1768), a blank-verse drama, and the Essay on Modern Gardening (1785). Small quarto: [xii], 150, [2] pp. with a photogravure frontispiece and 11 other plates in heliotype or photogravure, including tipped-in facsimiles. Original light brown paper-covered boards over a tan calf spine with a gilt-stamped black morocco spine label. Internally crisp and clean. The spine is a touch rubbed and faded; otherwise very good. Very good. Item #78997
Price: $100.00