[Rarebooks] For Sale: Golden Cockerel Press, Apuleius, Cupid & Psyches

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Offered today, far and wide:

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.

$ 215

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 known 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 
paragraph.

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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reason provided they are in the same condition as sent and prior notice 
is given. Please insure returns for their full value.

John Howell
310 367-9720