[Rarebooks] FS: Golden Cockerel Press, Cupid & Psyches, 1934

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Offered today:

APULEIUS (124-170 AD). ADLINGTON, William (fl. 1566), translator.

Cupid & Psyches: The Most Pleasant & Delectable Tale of Their Marriage. 
Engravings by Lettice Sandford. (London): The Golden Cockerel Press, 
1934.

Small 8vo. 7 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches. (48) pp. Colophon, engraved 
frontispiece, title page with cockerel vignette in black, 2 wood 
engravings in the text; text unmarked, water-staining in lower margin at 
pages 26-44. Cream buckram spine, patterned batik paper over boards, 
spine titled in gilt; binding square and tight, light shelf wear and 
soiling to spine. GIL921-021. SCARCE. Very Good.

$ 250

LIMITED EDITION of 150 copies, this is number 123 printed with 11-point 
Monotype Garamond, printed on Arnold all-rag paper. The text in this 
volume comes from the Golden Asse of Apuleius, translated by William 
Adlington (London, In Fleetstreate, at the sign of the Olipante, by 
Henry VVykes, 1566).

Lucious Apuleius Madaurensis (circa 124 to circa 170 CE) was a Numidian 
Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. His 
most famous work is his bawdy picaresque novel, the Metamorphoses, 
otherwise knows as The Golden Ass. It is the only Latin novel that has 
survived in its entirety. It relates the ludicrous adventures of one 
Lucius, who experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into a 
donkey. Lucius goes through various adventures before he is turned back 
into a human being by the goddess Isis. Within this frame story are 
found many digressions, the longest among them being the well-known tale 
of Cupid and Psyche. This story is a rare instance of a fairy tale 
preserved in an ancient literary text.

The Golden Cockerel Press was an English fine press operating between 
1920 and 1961, during which time a number of proprietors operated the 
press. The Golden Cockerel Press was founded by Harold (Hal) Midgley 
Taylor (1893-1925) in 1920. The third ownership partnership was formed 
in 1933 when the press was taken over by Christopher Sandford 
(1902-1983), Owen Rutter, and Francis J. Newbery. Around this time the 
Golden Cockerel Press ceased to be a private press and became a 
publishing house. Sandford worked long hours on management, editing and 
design. Rutter solicited new books and edited some of them. Newbery’s 
role as the printer was to oversee the production work at the Chiswick 
Press. The illustrator of this volume was Lettice Sandford (1902-1993), 
Christopher Sandford’s wife. She was a draftswoman, wood-engraver, 
pioneer corn dolly revivalist, and watercolorist, as well as the mother 
of playwright Jeremy Sanford. She provided wood engravings for many 
Golden Cockerel titles.

See Wikipedia for the information in this description.

REFERENCES: Cave and Manson, A History of the Golden Cockerel Press, pp. 
101-102; Chanticleer, No. 93. Worldcat records 26 copies.

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John Howell
310 367-9720