Beschreibung:

'DANSDORF, Chrysilla von' [?i.e. Christopher SANDFORD]. Heart's Desire . 'Paris: for private circulatation only' [?London: Golden Cockerel Press], [1939]. 4° (250 x 190mm). Title and first 2 lines of text printed in purple. Engraved title-vignette and 7 engraved plates by and after John Buckland Wright Pencilled erratum adding the word 'less' to the penultimate line on p. [42]. Additional suite of the 8 engravings printed on 5 bifolia. Original purple morocco-backed patterned boards, spine titled in gilt, top edge gilt. Provenance : Denis Barrable and Elizabeth Coult (bookplate) -- Ralph Donnithorne (sale, Christie's South Kensington, 18 March 1994, lot 261). NUMBER 70 OF 70 COPIES. Reid A30b (not calling for the suite of plates). 'Chrysilla von DANSDORF'. Heart's Desire . 'Paris': [1939] -- 6 proof engravings of the title-vignette and 5 plates for the work, the title-vignette mounted on a single leaf printed with the title text and vignette, the engravings mounted on 2 single sheets and 2 bifolia, all hand-coloured and with instructions to the printer in Buckland Wright's hand, all but the title numbered in pencil on the lower margins. Modern patterned-paper portfolio. ONE OF 70 COPIES, WITH AN ADDITIONAL SUITE OF PLATES AND SIX HAND-COLOURED PROOF ENGRAVINGS MARKED UP FOR THE PRINTER. Although purporting (in the well-established, ironic manner), to derive from a manuscript accidentally included in a multiple-lot of books purchased in a Parisian auction, it seems more probable that the text is the work of Buckland Wright's close friend and collaborator, Christopher Sandford, one of the partners of the Golden Cockerel Press (whose surname is an anagram of 'Dansdorf'), and it similarly seems likely that the work was printed by the Golden Cockerel Press (as the instructions to the printer in English indicate). Buckland Wright's annotations give the positions of the engravings on the sheets and identify the positions of the engravings in the volume, and, since Buckland Wright is known to have extra-illustrated books, the hand-colouring could have been executed by the artist himself. (2)