One of only 75 copies

Sassoon, Siegfried ~ Recreations : Presentation Copy Signed By The Author : With An Albert Rutherston Design 1923 Christmas Card, Signed By The Author To The Same Recipient

Privately printed by The Chiswick Press, London : 1923

The sole UK printing privately printed by The Chiswick Press, London for the author in 1923. One of only 75 copies issued (There were also six copies printed on large paper). The BOOK is in Very Good++ condition. Original vellum-backed blue boards (bound by Maltby, Oxford), with a little fading to the top front edge. Light rubbing to the corners, lower edges and the lower front edge. Top edge gilt. Woodcut title-border, initials and head- and tailpieces. This copy has been inscribed by the author to 'C.F.T.' [Rev. Cyril Tomkinson], who has signed it with his cipher (interlocking 'SS') to the limitation page. He has also mistakenly written Tomkinson’s middle initial as ‘F’ as opposed to the correct initial ‘E’. The book is protected in a removable Mylar archival cover. With a loose Christmas Card with three wonderful striking coloured designs by Albert Rutherston. The card measures 16 x 20cm. It has been signed and dated (‘Xmas 1923’) by Siegfried Sassoon to the same recipient with the same error in the recipient’s initials, and which has been corrected in pencil. This four page Christmas card is in near Fine condition and is 'Number one of a series of four Christmas Cards by modern artists and is designed by Albert Rutherston and published by Lund Humphries' (printing details). 'C.E.T.’ was the Rev. Cyril Edric Tomkinson, who was the incumbent of All Saints, Margaret Street (Grade I listed Anglo-Catholic church in London) from 1943-1951. On the rear end-paper, Tomkinson has written and dated, the details of Sassoon presenting this book to him shortly after publication. ‘Recreations' was first printed in an edition of 75 copies of 34 pages, which were then destroyed; the text was extended to 40 pages by the addition of three more poems and reprinted in an edition of 81 copies, of which six were on large paper. On 28 June 1923, Sassoon wrote that, 'The letters I've received about Recreations represent a sort of success but rather a dreary one ... Eddie Marsh calls it "a delightful little book". And R. Graves hails it as "an important achievement"' (Diaries 1923-1925, London: 1985, pp. 40-41). Keynes A22. Extremely scarce with JSIC listing only 6 copies held in institutions.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good++