James Branch Cabell : An Illustrated Bibliography

JURGEN: A Comedy of Justice

Hall Code
Description
*Jur-I1b
Golden Cockerel Press, Remainder Binding 1949 [1954]

IMAGES:

bindingfrontispiecerectocolophon

 

 

 

 

 

COMPILATION

Full Title:

[all enclosed in a woodcut border of leaves] JURGEN | A Comedy of Justice | by James Branch Cabell | with Wood Engravings by | John Buckland Wright | [woodcut device of a faun playing panpipes] | Printed in England at | The Golden Cockerel Press (see image above).

Colophon:

This edition of Jurgen with sixteen engravings by | John Buckland-Wright has been produced in 1949 by | Christopher Sandford at the Golden Cockerel Press, | London. It is limited to 500 numbered copies, of which | Nos: 1-100 are specially bound and contain one extra | engraving. No: 449 (see image above).

Collation:

Royal 8vo [25.5 cm. (10 in.) x 16 cm. (6 ΒΌ in.)], 350 pp. Printed with Caslon Old Face 14 pt type with Vesta titling on mould-made paper. (1) Blank leaf, (2) woodcut frontispiece; (3) title page (see above); (4) verso of title page blank; 5-6 foreword; 7-349 text; woodcut illustrations facing pp. 21, 39, 65, 81, 101, 121, 141, 167, 183, 215, 235, 257, 301, 331; colophon at p. 350.

Binding:

Green and pink cambric boards, gilt decoration on front panel. Top edge trimmed but unstained, otherwise untrimmed. Spine: JURGEN | gilt device of cockerel (see image above).

Frontispiece:

Woodcut by John Buckland-Wright of Jurgen's meeting with the black gentleman (see image above).

Dedication:

Cabell dedicated Jurgen to Burton Rascoe with an acrostic verse, but the dedication was not included in this printing.

Dust jacket / Slipcase:

None seen. Believed to have been issued without either.

Notes:

wrapsp 33p 38This is the last binding of this edition, bound from remaindered sheets in 1954 and released that same year. The Golden Cockerel Press catalog for Autumn, 1954, (Cock-A-Hoop LXXXVII) included a Special Announcement OF SOME "COCKERELS" IN CHEAP BINDINGS, listing what was claimed to be a small forgotten sheet stock of several books. These were bound in less expensive bindings and offered at bargain prices. The "small forgotten sheet stock" was a bit of artistic license; the press was in financial difficulties and needed the money. The titles in this sale included Lucretia Borgia, The Arab War, The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, The Amazons, and Jurgen. It's also interesting to note that almost five years after it was issued, the press still had copies of the special edition of Jurgen in stock.

As was typical for Golden Cockerel catalogues and prospectuses from this period, the catalogue for Autumn, 1954, was issued in both British and American versions. The only difference was that the US version had prices in dollars. This example is from the American issue.

The "sixteen engravings" mentioned in the colophon include the frontispiece, engraved title page recto, and the fourteen illustrations interspersed into the text.