The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.: In Seven Parts.

London: Printed at the Ballantyne Press, sold by Messrs. Hacon & Ricketts,, 1899. Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung First Vale Press edition, one of 210 copies on Arnold handmade paper from a total edition of 220, of which 10 were on vellum. This is one of the most beautiful editions of Coleridge's enduring poem, using the revised text of 1817, with the marginal prose gloss printed in a striking red. The Vale Press was founded by the lifelong partners Charles Ricketts (1866-1931) and Charles Shannon (1863-1937), both successful artists whose early printing ventures included The Dial (1889-97). The partnership and patronage of the wealthy barrister Llewellyn Hacon in 1894 allowed them to realize their ambition of establishing the press, producing primarily English poetic works, "blending medieval, Renaissance, and contemporary imagery" (Cooper) in a style influenced by the aesthetic and arts and crafts movements. Ricketts exercised almost complete control over the design and output of the press, remarking that he intended "to do for the book something in the line of what William Morris did for furniture" (quoted in Watry, p. xxiii). Their success was cut short by a disastrous fire in 1904, destroying their stock and woodcuts, and Ricketts and Shannon decided to abandon publishing in favour of other artistic pursuits. The demise of the press was marked by the Bibliography of the Vale Press (1904), in which Ricketts notes that this title was the first Vale Press book to contain Latin, and that a red iteration of the border was previously used for Matthew Arnold's Empedocles (1896). While Ricketts turned primarily to sculpture and theatre design after the loss of his press, he still occasionally designed books for acquaintances, including Michael Field and Gordon Bottomley. He previously illustrated books for his friend Oscar Wilde, including A House of Pomegranates (1891) and The Sphinx (1894), and began his notable theatre career working on a double-bill of Salome and A Florentine Tragedy. He would later write an intimate memoir, Recollections of Oscar Wilde (1932). "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" first appeared in Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads (1798). Coleridge removed several stanzas from this version and continued to revise the work throughout his life. Provenance: from the library of the Iowan art publisher and author Thomas D. Murphy (1866-1928), with his shelf label ("Thos. D. Murphy") on the front pastedown. Murphy is widely credited as the first publisher to issue art calendars, successfully initiating and growing the industry in the first decade of the 20th century. Octavo. Original blue paper-covered boards, paper labels to spine and front cover printed in black, edges untrimmed. Printed in Vale type in black, side-notes in red, elaborate woodcut border to first text page and large decorative initial letters by Charles Ricketts. Bookseller's ticket to front pastedown, corresponding browning to facing pages. Spine toned, extremities lightly rubbed, contents crisp: a near-fine copy. Haney 6; Franklin, p. 249; Ransom 23, p. 435; Ricketts XXV. Maureen M. Watry, The Vale Press: Charles Ricketts, a Publisher in Earnest, 2004.