Some Very Special Bindings From Gwasg Gregynog Press

by Stephen J. Gertz

THOMAS. R.S. Laboratories of the Spirit.
Newtown: Gwasg Gregynog, 1976

Number 5 of 15 copies signed by the author
and specially bound by Sally Lou Smith.

Crushed blue levant morocco (signed "S.L.S."), with morocco
onlays and gilt tooling, t.e.g., publisher's morocco solander box.

Esslemont and Hughes 01.

A rare cache of specially-bound books published by Gregynog Press/Gwasg Gregynog Press is coming to auction at Bonham's, March 27, 2012. 

THOMAS, Dylan. Deaths and Entrances.
Newtown: Gwasg Gregynog, 1984.

Number 14 OF 18 specially bound by James Brockman.  

Morocco with an abstract landscape design of brown morocco with
blue, grey, green, and yellow inlays with gilt blocked decoration, g.e.
Preserved in publisher's velvetine-lined morocco-backed solander box.

Esslemont and Hughes 9.

The  nine lots  include bindings by masters James Brockman, Sally  Lou  Smith, Alan  Wood,  and Desmond  Shaw.

WILLIAMS, Kyffin (illus.), ROBERTS, Kate.
Two Old Men and Other Stories.
Newtown, Gregynog Press, 1981

Number 12 of 15 specially bound copies by Desmond Shaw
with the frontispiece hand-colored by the artist.

Red morocco (signed "D.S."), in a Welsh landscape design
with cottage and stone wall after Williams.
In original velvetine-lined book box.

Esslemont and Hughes 5.

The Gregynog Press was established in 1922, the brainchild of two sisters, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies. Located at their house, Gregynog Hall, in rural mid-Wales, during the next eighteen years the Press gained a reputation for producing limited edition books of the highest order and ranked alongside the leading Private Presses of the day.

WHITMAN, Walt. Wrenching Times.
Newtown: Gwasg Gregynog, 1991

Number 6 of 30 specially bound copies.

Publisher's full calf, with an all design of mountains beneath
a blue sky made up of coloured morocco onlays.
Publisher's fabric-lined solander box.

Re-established in 1978 under the Welsh title Gwasg Gregynog, the Press continues the traditions of its founders, and in January of 2002 was registered as a charity.

REES, Joan Bowen (ed.). The Mountains of Wales.
Newtown: Gwasg Gregynog, 1987.

Number 6 OF 20 copies specially bound by James Brockman.

Transparent vellum boards with abstract design of colored morocco overlays,
preserved in original velvetine-lined quarter morocco solander box.

Esslemont and Hughes 16.

Gwasg Gregynog integrates the traditional crafts of hot-metal typesetting, letterpress printing and hand-binding by the finest craftsmen, into books featuring illustrations by leading contemporary artists, printing on handmade and mould-made papers, and the finest binding materials.

TAYLOR, Armold. Four Great Castles. Caernarfon. Conwy. Harlech. Beaumaris.
Newtown: Gwasg Gregynog, 1983.

Number 11 OF 15 copies specially bound by James Brockman.

Morocco gilt by James Brockman, with all-over design of castle battlements
in gilt and coloured morocco inlays, t.e.g. In original velvetine-lined quarter
morocco book box.

Esslemont and Hughes 7.

The private press books of Gwasg Gregynog are amongst the finest currently produced. While the intricate bindings of the specially-bound copies present a  visual feast, the books themselves display beauty and harmony and are designed not only to be read but to delight the senses, as well.

PARRY, Robert Williams. Cerddi,
Newtown: Gwasg Gregynog, 1980.

Number 14 of 15 copies specially bound by Sydney Cockerell
after a design by Joan Rix Tebbutt.

Green crushed morocco (signed "J.S."), the upper cover with a flower
pattern tooled in blind and gold, t.e.g., publisher's felt-lined book box.

Esslemont and Hughes 4.

The goals of the original Gregynog Press, as declared by the Founders, were:

• To introduce and encourage fine printing in Wales.
• To print certain literature, in both English and Welsh, which relates to Wales and  the Welsh, and which has been hitherto unavailable except in rare volumes.
• To print editions of the English Classics.
• To bind all work at the Press Bindery.

WILLIAMS, Kyffin. Cutting Images.
A Selection of Linocuts by Kyffin Williams.
Newtown, Gwasg Gregynog, 2002.

Number 14 of 20 copies specially bound by Alan Wood
after a design by Williams.

With an additional suite of 9 linocuts all numbered and signed by the artist,
preserved in publisher's solandar box case designed by Williams.

As for  the  Press's  resurrection, "the  moving  force  in  recreating  Gwasg Gregynog  was  Glyn Tegai Hughes…In 1969, with  encouragement  from  the  Welsh  Arts  Council, a  Gregynog  Fellowship was established…Subsequent  Gwasg  Gegynog  books,  produced  under the  direction  of  Eric  Gee,  with assistance of Daivd Vickers, have also included attractive work…" (Cave, R. The Private Press, p. 242, 2d ed.).

ESCHENBACH, Wolffram von.
The Romance of Parzival and the Holy Grail.
Newtown: Gwasg Gregynog, 1990

Number 10 OF 15 copies specially bound by James Brockman.

Limp calf suede with covers interlaced with stained vellum straps
laced through the covers with tablets of wood, bone and enamelled metal
 on spine.

Preserved in publisher's silk-lined solander box.

Esslemont and Hughes 21.

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Images courtesy of Bonham's, with our thanks.

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Jewel of Welsh Manuscripts Goes Digital

By Nancy Mattoon

Image of The King From
The Laws Of Hywel Dda Manuscript.
(Images Courtesy of National Library of Wales.)

A manuscript which has been called "one of the jewels of Welsh civilization" has been digitized for the first time by the National Library of Wales. The 14th century volume, known as The Laws of Hywel Dda, is one of the earliest records of a system of native Welsh law named after King Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good) whose reign began in approximately 920 A.D. Although the code was written prior to 950 A.D., there is no surviving manuscript dating earlier than the late 13th century.

Detail Depicting The Crime of Assault,
In This Case Hair Pulling.

The copy digitized in February 2010 is particularly rare, as unlike virtually all other Welsh manuscripts of this period, it is heavily illustrated. According to manuscripts librarian Dr. Maredudd ap Huw, "The monk who transcribed the text combined secular and devotional elements to 'decorate' his work, which makes it today one of our most interesting medieval manuscripts." This copy of the The Laws of Hywel Dda is also much larger than most other law books of the period, and was probably created for a library, rather than meant to be carried in the pocket of a lawyer. It was clearly made for a scholarly client, as it is written in Latin rather than in Welsh.

Detail Of A Hunting Dog,
A Valuable Commodity.

The Welsh library has speculated that this highly unusual volume may have been commissioned as a presentation copy of the Welsh laws for a foreign dignitary. The fact that it is written in Latin hints at an ecclesiastic end-user, rather than a lawyer, and very likely a non-Welshman. Textual evidence suggests that it was probably written in an ecclesiastical center located in south-west Wales. It is known that, by the beginning of the fourteenth century, the manuscript was at Saint Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. The evidence for this comes from one of two pastedowns preserved at the end of the volume. It is also thought that this was the copy of the Welsh laws consulted by John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1279-92, when he sent his letter to Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282, denouncing the prince's morals and those of the Welsh people, and in which he makes two references to the Laws of Hywel Dda. Peckham had been sent to Wales as a mediator by English King Edward I, but instead his conservative nature caused him to offend the Welsh ruler, and his people, by declaring them "unchaste, idle, lazy, drunkards."

Another Highly Valued Animal, The Stallion.

The illustrations contained in the volume fall into two categories: those which portray the king, officials of his household, and other human figures; and those which depict birds, animals, and property of legal value. The representation of the king seems to be based upon a higher-quality archetype than the rest of the drawings, which lack sophistication. They are probably the work of the scribe, as they appear to have been drawn in the same kind of ink as the text. Apart from the black ink, he uses two main colors, green and red. The scribe's use of green rather than the more common blue used in the mid-thirteenth century, especially for the capital letters, is probably due to the limited number of inks available in Wales at the time.

Detail Of A Decorated Letter "C".

Cyfraith Hywel, the law of Hywel, was the name by which their native law was known to the Welsh in medieval times. The law of Hywel lost its primacy after the conquest of Wales by Edward I and the passing of the Statute of Wales in 1284, but it remained an important ingredient of the law administered in Wales until the Act of Union in 1536. The extent of its use is reflected by the survival of as many as forty law books dating from between 1284 and 1536. Hywel the Good died in 949 or 950. In the latter part of his peaceful reign he ruled over a greater part of Wales than any king before him, and almost any Welsh ruler after him.

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A Pirate Queen Sets Sail To Save A Welsh Library

An 18th Century Engraving of
Female Pirate, Anne Bonny.

(Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.)

The Isle of Anglesey lies in the Irish Sea, off the Northern coast of mainland Wales. Its rocky coastline offers fine sea routes, West to Dublin, East to Liverpool, and North to the Isle of Man, Belfast, and Glasgow. Beginning in the 12th century, ships by the thousands sailed the Irish sea, but few made Anglesey a Port of Call. Yet many stopped there just the same.

The Coastline of The Isle of Anglesey.
(Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.)

High winds, rogue waves, and the deadly crags of the flinty shore sent many a sailor to his death along the island's "Shipwreck Coast." But one man's tragedy was another's pleasure, for sinking ships meant also sunken treasure. Brigands and buccaneers made Anglesey the center of "The Golden Age of Piracy," and by the 17th century it was said half the world's pirates had Welsh blood in their veins. These ruthless raiders of the high seas now lie full fathom five, but the island village of Rhosneiger is hoping the legend of its pirate queen, Madam Wen, can somehow keep the town library from drowning in a sea of red ink.

Author W.D. Owen.
(Image Courtesy of Sarah Richards Collection.)

The romantic tale of a Squire's demure wife turned cutthroat corsair has been a part of Anglesey folklore for at least 300 years. It was finally recorded in written form in 1914, appearing as a serial in the weekly Welsh language newspaper, Y Genedl Gymreig. This stirring tale of a wicked wench and her bloody band of ruffians was written by W.D. Owen, a gentle local schoolmaster, whose sister was the longtime housekeeper for Florence Nightingale. Owen finally published his story in book form in 1925, just two weeks before his death from tuberculosis at age 51. The story was framed as the text of Madam Wen's long missing diary, recovered by the author from the cave hiding her pirate band's stolen treasure.

An Aerial View Of A Pirate Haven, The Isle of Anglesey.
(Image Courtesy of The BBC.)

Mandi Abrahams, a member of the Friends of the Rhosneigr Library, lives in a home once owned by W.D. Owen. Owen built a second home in Anglesey the same year he published Madam Wen, recording in his own diary the progress of its construction day by day. As his house rose, Owen's health fell, and one his of last diary entries reads: "A lovely day and I feel rotten." Owen's story faded into obscurity outside of Wales until 2009, when an avid chronicler of Rhosneigr history, Tim Hale, finally published an English translation of the tale Welsh children had enjoyed for generations. It appears in a volume entitled The Rhosneiger Romanticist, which also features a biography of W.D. Owen and another of his previously untranslated works.

Shoreline Homes In The Village of Rhosneigr
(Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Ms. Abrahams saw the English-language publication of local folklore as a golden opportunity to create a library exhibit highlighting a well-loved local author. She had been looking for a way to draw attention to the Library, since the Anglesey Council is considering closing Rhosneigr Branch as part of a program of spending cuts. "We have huge support for our campaign to keep the library open," said Ms Abrahams. "Lots of people have volunteered to steward this exhibition which tells a story that's very special to people all over Anglesey." Tim Hale has created displays for the exhibition which tell the story of W.D. Owen, his family and business, as well as Madam Wen and the sites associated with her, and another section on Rhosneigr in the early 20th century.

One of Many Sea Caves Along The Welsh Coast,
Perfect For Hiding Ill-Gotten Gains.
(Image Courtesy of bakerlite.co.uk)

The exhibit demonstrates how the Library can help to preserve local history and folklore. According to Ms. Abrahams, "Madam Wen is a character based on a historical figure. It's a very romantic story, [but] historian Maldwyn Thomas did the research into who she actually was and he found a lady called Margaret Williams who had married into a squire's family and was a Madam Wen-type figure. There's always been a story about this lady smuggler captain or lady pirate in the area who...[was] able to control the local ruffians, and had her hideout in Llanfairyneubwll."

The Coat Of Arms Of The
Isle of Anglesey County Council

(Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.)

The Friends of Rhosneigr Library was formed when the threat of library closure was first raised. "People here were absolutely disgusted and horrified because it's a very busy library in lots of ways, not just for people borrowing books and kids doing their homework, but also as a community centre," said Ms. Abrahams. She hopes the exhibition will show the library's vital role in the village, and its potential for providing a treasure trove of benefits to the area's residents. Her wish is that pirate queen Madam Wen's final legacy will be to keep the riches found in books available on her beloved Isle of Anglesey.

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