Some Fragments for C. R. H.

Small 8vo. 8 1/4 x 5 inches. [ii], (92) pp. Headings printed in red ink, errata on the colophon; text clean, unmarked. Brown decorative paper over boards, wrap-around label with printed front cover and spine titling, with two dust-jackets, one on cream-colored printed Japanese paper with title "Pieces for an Artist's Testament (1966-1967)" and a second with plain light green laid paper, all of which is now covered in a clear acetate jacket; binding square and tight. Laid-in is a French-fold Christmas and New Years greetings card from Carolyn and Victor Hammer. GIL921-016. Fine.

LIMITED EDITION of 125 copies, this is number 68. This book contains a series of comments upon the life and artistic development of Victor Hammer, the Austrian-born American painter, sculptor, printer, and typographer. Hammer left the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna in 1908. In 1922, he moved to Florence, Italy where he set up a printing press. Hammer moved his printing operation into the Villa Santuccio in Florence and named it the Stamperia del Santuccio. In 1939, Hammer fled the Nazis from Vienna, finally settling in Lexington, Kentucky where he served as artist-in-residence at Transylvania University until his retirement in 1953. In 1954, Hammer moved his wooden printing press to the University of Kentucky where it is used by the King Library Press since 1959. He and his second wife, Carolyn Reading Hammer (C. R. H.) were active in the life of the University of Kentucky's arts and library programs where they participated in the operation of the King Library Press. See: Wikipedia article on Hammer and the Victor Hammer papers at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections.