(Vale Press). Moore, T. Sturge.
- London: Hacon and Ricketts, (1903).
- 8vo.
- quarter cloth over blue paper covered boards, paper label on cover
- 74 pages.
Printed in red & black by the Ballantyne Press on handmade paper. (BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE BOOKS ISSUED BY HACON & RICKETTS, pg xxxi). Three wood block illustrations. Some very light discoloration to blue holland boards, with light discoloration to pastedowns and endpapers. Else an excellent copy. Unopened. “Danae was the last book published by Hacon and Ricketts and contains 3 illustrations by Charles Ricketts. While many of the Vale Press books contained decorative title page borders and initial letters by Ricketts, very few of them had illustrations.” Extremely scarce.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE BOOKS ISSUED BY HACON & RICKETTS: Danaë. A Poem by T. Sturge Moore. With three illustrations designed and cut on the wood by Charles Ricketts. Demy octavo. Two hundred and thirty copies printed in the King’s fout in red and black. Price twenty shillings. Ten copies printed on vellum. The shoulder notes and colophon are printed in red and the statement made in the colophon that it is the lat book published by Hacon and Ricketts..
Danae was the last book published by Hacon and Ricketts and contains 3 illustrations by Charles Ricketts. While many of the Vale Press books contained decorative title page borders and initial letters by Ricketts, very few of them had illustrations.
This book was printed in the Kings font which was Ricketts’ personal favorite. Like William Morris of the Kelmscott press before him and T. J. Cobsen-Sanderson of the Doves Press after him, Ricketts designed his own fonts and had them cut by Edward Prince. In addition to the fonts of the Kelmscott, Doves, and Vale Presses, Prince also cut the Brook font for the Eragny press, the Endeavor font for Essex House, and the Subiaco type for Ashendene. Three different fonts were used in the Vale Press books. The first and best known was the Vale type. The second was actually a smaller version of the Vale type and was called the Avon type since it was used in the 39 volume Shakespeare’s Works. The Kings font was the third and last used by the Vale Press. After a final bibliography of the press in 1904 (the only item printed after this book), Ricketts tossed all his type and the matrices used for casting the type into the river Thames (over a decade later T. J. Cobden-Sanderson did the same with the Doves type).
