Publisher/Manufacturer: Gwasg Gregynog (Gregynog Press) Series title: The Lovers Songbook
1933 Wood engravings in black on Japanese Gampi Vellum hand made paper
128 x 102 mm. Purchase: Gregynog Press / Gwasg Gregynog 1994 Funding support: Catherine Lewis Trust
Number 36 of an edition of 100. The ten illustrations for 'The Lovers Song Book', poems by W.H.Davies, were published in an edition of 100 by Gwasg Gregynog in 1993. They were printed at Gregynog by David Esslemont and Antonia King. They are presented in a cloth-covered drop-back box together with two letterpress promotional pamphlets and a copy of 'The Lover's Song Book', edition number 36/350. The boxed set is number 36 of a limited edition of 50. The Gregynog Press first published 'The Lover's Song Book' in 1933. It was intended that the illustrations were to be engraved by Blair Hughes-Stanton but his blocks were rejected by the Press Directors. Instead Gertrude Hermes was commissioned to illustrate the volume but these too were rejected and in 1933 the book was published without illustrations. In 1993 the Press re-published the book in a limited edition to coincide with the edition of Hermes's illustrations. The original blocks are in the collection of the National Library of Wales.
Ten book illustrations for W.H.Davies's 'The Lover's Song Book' featuring bees, flowers, a factory, a bird in a nest, primitive masks, a butterfly / moth, grapes, a cupid, joined hands, a clockface, a tree and lovers embracing, dancing and kissing. Each illustration covers three poems entitled as follows:- (I) Where We Agree; Beauty and Song; The Shadow, (II) Past and Present; To-Morrow-To-Night, (III) Light and Darkness; Married Couples; Brother Gods, (IV) Alone; The Supper; When We Forget, (V) Faults; Fortunes; Stings, (VI) This Old Green Orchard; Pecking; The Peacemaker, (VII) Marvellous Ears; The Laws of Beauty; A Foolish Tongue, (VIII) Good and Evil; Regret; Three Score and Ten, (IX) A Lullaby of Rest; Last Thoughts; Love's Rivals, (X) True or Fickle; Love and Money; The Great Lovers.
