Sartor Resartus: The Life & Opinions of Herr Teufelsdroeckh
Hammersmith, London: Doves Press, 1907.
Limited Edition. One of 315 copies. 341, [1] pp. Bound in publisher's limp vellum with spine lettered in gilt. Printed in black and red by Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker. Very Good+. Covers curled, with red spotted staining to rear cover and light foxing to fore edge. Bookplate of famed bibliophile Decherd Turner (1922-2002) on the front free endpaper with transfer mark from previously pasted bookseller's ticket at front pastedown. A stunning Doves Press production of Carlyle's comic novel, first printed serially in Fraser’s Magazine from 1833 to 1834. The Scottish essayist and historian had intended this to be a new kind of novel with varying paradoxical themes that intertwined fact and fiction, speculation, seriousness and satire. The book is a parody of German Idealism and of Hegel, in particular. Books printed by Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker at the Doves Press are characterized by a stark simplicity, “dependent for their beauty almost entirely upon the clarity of the type, the excellence of the layout, and the perfection of the presswork” (Cave, 147). They reflect Cobden-Sanderson’s passion for the “ideal book” in its entirety. Doves imprints are scarce, because when the press closed in 1913, Cobden-Sanderson cast all the type off the Hammersmith Bridge into the Thames— to remain “untouched for other use” (Ransom, 59). Ransom, Doves 13.
Price: $3,500