SASSOON, Siegfried; Charles SIGRIST ( engraver ). Vigils.

Engraved Sassoon SASSOON, Siegfried; Charles SIGRIST (engraver). Vigils. [Bristol: Privately printed for Douglas Cleverdon]. 1934. 8vo. Contemporary tan niger morocco by John D. Gray & Son Ltd, Cambridge (front free endpaper signed in gilt), spine lettered directly in gilt, turn-ins ruled in blind, top edge-gilt; ff. [25], copper-engraved throughout; paper watermarked ‘1399’ with image of Sudarium (Barcham Green & Co, Maidstone), scythe and hourglass to title; slight offsetting to endpa-pers, else a near-fine copy; contemporary ownership inscription of L. C. Kempson to front endpaper. First edition, no. 207 of 272 copies signed and numbered by the author (from a total edition of 303); the trade edition followed the next year. Conceived after Sassoon sought the advice of his friend (and later bibliographer) Geoffrey Keynes on issuing a limited edition of his poems, the work was beautifully copper-engraved throughout in a script derived from Sassoon’s distinctive hand. Keynes writes in his mem-oirs that although ‘publication seemed to be an invasion of [Sassoon’s] privacy, he disliked being ignored [...] Any publication was therefore an ordeal, which could be mitigated by the preliminary issue of an inconspicuous private edition. I formed the notion of presenting these serious and reflective poems in a novel and attractive form by having the entire book engraved on copperplates’ (Keynes, The Gates of Memory (1981), p. 233). The title-page, bearing a scythe and hourglass, was designed by Stephen Gooden. Two hundred and twelve copies were bound in tan niger, as here, and a further sixty (of which fifty in boards) were for presentation. Provenance: With the ownership inscription of Lucy Caroline Kempson (1874–1958), great-granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood II, alumna of Somerville College, Oxford, and friend and correspondent of Dorothy L. Sayers. Keynes A39a. SKU: 2125257