[Gravesend Press] Boccaccio, John | engravings by Fritz Kredel

The Three Admirable Accidents of Andrea de Piero; from the First Englyshed Edition of the Decameron [with Prospectus]

Lexington, KY: Gravesend Press, 1954. Vellum Binding. Near Fine binding. Item #9407

18mo. [10], 48, [4] pp., illus. Limited edition, number 9 of 200 copies. As issued, in vellum-backed patterned-paper over boards. Lacking the slipcase. A handsome copy with only light toning to the perimeters of the boards; contents clean. This copy with 4-page prospectus.

This work was the first book issued by the Gravesend Press that was actually printed using the Graves' press in their stable by Graves and Jacob Hammer. Kredel's charming engraved pressmark of a sleeping pressman graces the final page. Graves writes about this in his Bibliographical Confession, the donkey in the window was their family pet, Patience. Graves operated the press as a sideline from about 1949 through to the end of his life in 1960 issuing scarcely more than half a dozen books. While less known that some of his contemporaries he took his place amidst a vibrant mid-century printing and illustrating scene—friends with Victor Hammer, Carolyn Reading, Fritz Kredel, John DePol, John Fass, and others. H. Richard Archer in a history of the Graves and his press published in The Kentucky Review (Spring 1987) summarizes Graves's work thus: "All of the books, whether pamphlets or bound books, reflect the taste and high standards of a true amateur craftsman, and, as such, they certainly qualify as choice examples from one of this generation's most distinguished private presses." Press historian Roderick Cave notes that this was "probably the most successful Gravesend book" (p. 263). Cave, The Private Press (2nd edition); Graves, The Gravesend Press: A Bibliographical Confession, p. 11-13.

Price: $350.00