Newe Testament Four Gospels (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Four volumes. Taupe paper-covered boards with lapping spine labels, drop-back boxes , large 12mo, Illustrated with woodcuts. The Gospell of S. Jhon, S. Luke, S. Matthew, and S. Mark. Based on Tyndale's 1526 English Translation. One of 300 copies laid out by Victor Hammer and printed by Jacob Hammer from Koch's Jessen type on Arnold unbleached paper at their Anvil Press. Woodcuts of the Evangelists and their Symbols are by Victor Hammer after the Holkham Picture Bible Drawings. Four page prospectus with two woodcuts and the order form loosely inserted. One of the most ambitious and substantial projects of the Press. Absolutely fine, fresh, unopened copies housed in near fine taupe cloth-covered drop-back boxes with leather labels gilt, lined with marbled paper and protected with archival mylar. Scarce in this superlative state.…

Lexington, KY: Anvil Press. 1955. Four vols, small 8vo. Original light blue paper-covered boards, paper labels to spines; unpaginated, each volume with double-page woodcut from the Holkham Bible as a frontispiece, printed in red and black in American Uncial type; very slight sunning to spines, uncut, near fine.Limited edition, one of 300 copies.This set of Gospels, using Tyndale's translation, was designed by Victor Hammer, the Austrian-born typographer and artist, and was printed by his son Jacob. Hammer, responsible for the creation of several famous Uncial fonts such as that used here, settled in the US after fleeing the Nazis in 1938 having trained young craftsmen such as Fritz Kredel and Rudolph Koch. He continued to teach in Kentucky and set up the Anvil Press with his second wife Carolyn Reading, herself a printer. The Press was a co-operative that used a number of different presses and sold its productions at cost.The Four Gospels is considered to be its finest work and representative of Hammer's high standards: "The books designed or printed by Hammer, regardless of the imprint under which they were published, had a unity rare indeed in private printing: Absolutely uncompromising in design and execution, they represented admirably the superb instrument a private press can be in the hands of an individual intent on perfection, or in the hands of his followers" (Roderick Cave, The Private Press, 1971, p. 263). …