The Pearl. Translated by John F. Crawford with Andrew Hoyem.
San Francisco, 1967. 9 x 11. 125 pages with four color illustrations, reproduced for the first time from the only surviving manuscript of the poem. Bound by Fritz Eberhardt in full dark green morocco inlaid with a flowers & leaves in greens, browns, yellow, and turquoise and tooled in turquoise and gold; endcaps & board edges also tooled; the gilded top edge is stamped with tiny circles. Signed on rear turn-in. Fine in suede-lined cloth tray case with leather labels. Item #17804
Fritz Eberhardt was one of the finest American hand binders. The garden on this binding reflects the garden in the poem, where the narrator fell asleep and dreamed of his dead daughter.
The text is one of 225 copies printed by Robert Grabhorn and Andrew Hoyem, with the Middle English text is in red Civilité interlined with Modern English in black Deepdene, on English mould-made paper. "....a model of the way such Medieval texts should be presented...This is a grand and meritorious book...." (BCC, 1987).
Price: $7,875.00