PARADISE LOST, A POEM IN XII BOOKS WITH PARADISE REGAINED A POEM IN IV BOOKS TO WHICH ARE ADDED SAMSON AGONISTES & POEMS BOTH ENGLISH AND LATIN COMPOS'D ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS by Milton, John - 1905

Hammersmith: The Doves Press, 1905. original full limp vellum with title in gilt on spine, each enclosed in modern slipcase with cloth dust jacket. Doves Press. 8vo. original full limp vellum with title in gilt on spine, each enclosed in modern slipcase with cloth dust jacket. 386,(2); 343+(1) pages. Two volumes. Limited to 325 copies printed by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson (Marianne Tidcombe, The Doves Press, 37-42, Catalogue Raisonne p.20; Ransom no.5&7). Title and margin notes in red. Initials designed by Edward Johnston. The present work is one of Walker and Cobden-Sanderson's earlier productions, and certainty one of the highlights of the Doves Press. The title page and the first leaf of text of the first volume have some foxing along the outer edge.



Founded by Sir Emery Walker and bookbinder T.J. Cobden-Sanderson in 1900, The Doves Press books with their beautifully cut typography and the spaciousness of the layouts, were a main inspiration for the revival of private-press printing in the 20th century.



By 1909, Walker and Cobden-Sanderson were embroiled in a long and bitter dispute involving the rights to the Doves Type as they dissolved their partnership. In the dissolution agreement, all rights to the distinctive typeface were meant to pass to Walker upon the death of Cobden-Sanderson. But on Good Friday of 1913, Cobden-Sanderson destroyed the matrices by casting them off Hammersmith Bridge and into the Thames. He began destroying the types in August of 1916, and apparently completed the task in January 1917. Indeed, over the course of about 170 trips, Cobden-Sanderson small, frail, seventy-six year old man managed to carry more than a ton of type from 15 Upper Mall to the Thames. In 2015, designer Robert Green, with help from the Port of London Authority, was able to recover 150 pieces of the original type from the waters near Hammersmith Bridge.