The Vale Press : Charles Ricketts, A Publisher in Earnest [new, in publisher's shrinkwrap]

New Castle, Delaware / London: Oak Knoll Press / The British Library, 2004. Brand New in a Brand New dust jacket. STILL SEALED in the publisher's clear plastic SHRINKWRAP. 2004. First edition (so stated). Foreword by Nicolas Barker. Well illustrated with 125 black & white reproductions and 36 in full color. Includes a 145-page fully descriptive bibliography of Vale Press publications and ephemera, modeled on W. S. Peterson's BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE KELMSCOTT PRESS. List of ornaments. Three appendices. List of sources. Index. Bound in the original gilt-stamped brown cloth. From the dust jacket: "As a typographer, publisher, and wood engraver Charles Ricketts (1866-1931) was a versatile and innovative practitioner who exerted a powerful influence on the development of modern book design. THE VALE PRESS is the most extensive account of his quest to become 'a publisher in earnest.' Beginning with Ricketts's work as 'a designer of books and bindings' for Oscar Wilde, the story of the Vale Press reveals for the first time the nature of Ricketts's collaboration with the master printer Charles McCall of the Ballantyne Press and the degree to which Ricketts's success, both artistic and commercial, depended upon the transformation of his redundant skill as a wood engraver into a positive medium of artistic expression. This important work offers a fascinating, historic window into the world of Ricketts, his contemporaries, and the British fine press movement. Readers will also find this history well-illustrated in colour and black-and-white with a comprehensive bibliography of the works of the Vale Press and Ricketts." 8.75" wide by 11.25" tall.. First Edition (so stated). Hardcover. New/New DJ (still in shrinkwrap). xxiv, 266pp. + color plates. Great Packaging, Fast Shipping.