Some old French and English Ballads ERAGNY PRESS / Edited by R. Steele RARE BOOKS

8vo; 8 3/4 x 5 3/8 inches (208 x 133 mm); 60, (2) pp., printed on Arches hand-made paper in red and black; frontispiece in 5 colors by Lucien Pissarro, and colophon also by him. Paper covered boards with decorative Winter Jasmine paper, and moss green spine, with gilt lettering; manuscript title and "Eragny Press" on backstrip. Spine ends+ bumped and free endpapers browned as usual; a few spots of foxing but overall clean and unmarked. With error in printing publication date 1905 as MCCCCMV. Pictorial bookplate of R. T. Gibbon pasted inside front cover. One of 200 copies on paper (plus 8 on vellum). With loosely inserted (slightly browned) manuscript letter by the secretary of Mr. W.M. Voynich, addressed to "Mr. Roberts", asking him if he can mention "this little known press in the Times. It has sometimes been noticed in the Athenaeum, but is not nearly as well known as it deserves to be from the quality of the work." [Tomkinson 22, p. 65; Steele 40]. The music type for this lovely and elegant book was designed especially for this work from sixteenth century models. With twenty ballads in both English and French, representing the most popular poetry of the countries at the time. A scarce volume.