SARTOR RESARTUS: THE LIFE & OPINIONS OF HERR TEUFELSDROECKH

1907 · London

by (BINDING - DOVES BINDING FORGERIES). (DOVES PRESS). CARLYLE, THOMAS

London: The Doves Press, 1907. ONE OF 300 COPIES printed on paper (and 15 on vellum). 235 x 165 mm. (9 1/4 x 6 1/2"). 341 [1] pp.
VERY ATTRACTIVE DARK BLUE CRUSHED MOROCCO IN THE STYLE OF THE DOVES BINDERY (counterfeit signature stamped and dated 1907 to the rear turn-in), covers simply framed by two plain gilt rules, raised bands, spine compartments with rose window designs formed by six open ovals accented with dots, encircled by two gilt rules, with low platforms and dots above and below, gilt titling, turn-ins gilt-ruled and with cornerpieces of open ovals, dots, and gouge work, all edges gilt and gauffered with two rows of tiny dots. Initials (truncated) designed by Edward Johnston. Printed in red and black. Pastedown with the bookplate of Helen and Michael Oppenheimer. Tidcombe DP-13. For the binding: Tidcombe, p. 464. Spine a little sunned, just a trace of soiling to leather, the usual offsetting from the facing turn-ins on the front and rear free endpaper, a hint of yellowing to quire b, but still fine, the text otherwise pristine, and the binding unworn and lustrous.

This is one of the 26 intriguing (and obviously uncommon) examples Tidcombe has identified as forged or imitation Doves bindings, a group of handsomely executed volumes that continue to be mysterious. Tidcombe differentiates between forgeries (those books that are stamp-signed with "C - S" and a date, as here) on the one hand and unsigned "copies of Doves bindings or bindings in the Doves style" on the other. But she treats them as one group "because they have several features in common." For example, signed or unsigned, all of the suspect bindings cover Doves Press books, all are bound in dark blue morocco, and all have a signature pallet with the letters "E" and "S" close together. Although Tidcombe suggests that the person responsible for the forged Doves bindings could possibly have been the former Doves Bindery finisher Charles McLeish, she does not settle on him or any other likely candidate. Whoever was behind them, the volumes in this puzzling group of bindings--like other forgeries and imitations of historically important cultural artifacts--are actively collected for their value as counterfeits. And as with other counterfeits, the present binding is a kind of implicit homage, in this case to the outstanding work done by Cobden-Sanderson at the Doves Bindery--our spurious binding would not have been worth undertaking, were the objects it mirrored not so universally recognized as worthy of imitation. The text here is an uncategorizable work reminiscent of satires by Swift and Sterne in its fictitious biography of Teufelsdroeckh (i.e., "devil's dung"), Professor of Things in General at the University of Weissnichtwo ("Know-not-where"). Day calls it "an intellectual and spiritual autobiography and a diatribe against current conditions in England" that advocates a reorganization of society and its institutions, so that "Brotherhood and the duty to work usefully will grip mankind's true leaders and assure a theocracy, a reborn humanity ruled by the divine spirit within." Our volume was formerly in the collection of fine private press books owned by the distinguished scholars Sir Michael Oppenheimer (1924-2020) and his wife Lady Helen Oppenheimer (1926-2022); he was an Oxford lecturer in politics and history, she an Anglican theologian whose groundbreaking work on ethics helped reform the church's position on remarriage of divorced persons.. (Inventory #: ST20299)

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