Book of Genesis, The by ROBINSON, F. Cayley, illustrator; [RICCARDI PRESS]

London: Philip Lee Warner publisher to the Medici Society, 1914. The Book of Genesis Beautifully Illustrated by Frederick Cayley Robinson
Limited to 500 Numbered Copies


ROBINSON, F. Cayley, illustrator. [RICCARDI PRESS]. The Book of Genesis. Now printed in the authorised version and illustrated after drawings by F. Cayley Robinson. London: Philip Lee Warner publisher to the Medici Society, 1914.

Limited to 500 numbered copies (this being no. 473). Quarto (10 5/16 x 7 3/4 in; 262 x 197 mm). xv, [1], 88, [1, colophon], [1, blank], [1, printer's slug], [1, blank] pp. on Riccardi hand-made paper. Ten mounted color plates, including frontispiece, with captioned tissue guards. Engraved title-page printed in blue and black with central ornament.

Bound ca. 1925 by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in three quarter russet morocco over green cloth boards ruled in blind, spine with five raised bands ruled in blind and lettered in gilt, top edge rough gilt, others uncut. Faint (almost invisible) ink signature dated 1935 on front paste-down. Some very light foxing to borders of plates, otherwise a fine copy.

"Nearer to the private press style and better known are the books from Philip Lee Warner at the Riccardi Press and Chatto and Windus's Florence Press. They were not strictly private presses, but very near in heritage and example. Types for both were designed by Herbert Horn...and cut by Edward Prince. Both these typefaces have a clear and rational beauty, more economic in use than the Doves type but based upon the same models. Most of the Riccardi books were printed by Jacobi at the Chiswick Press" (Franklin, The Private Presses, p. 160).

"Mr Horne also designed a similar type for the Riccardi Press, who se first book appeared in 1909. The title was assumed by the Medici Society for books 'to be finely printed and issued at reasonable prices through the usual trade channels.' The books were primarily vehicles for coloured illustrations reproduced by the Medici Process, by which a large number of single prints had already been made, but the program was soon extended...Composition and presswork were done at the Chiswick Press under the personal supervision of Mr. Charles T. Jacobi until his retirement in 1922. Texts were chiefly of familiar classics and many were illustrated by contemporary artists" (Ransom, p. 164-65).

F[rederick] Cayley Robinson (1862-1927) was an English painter, decorator and illustrator. Born in Brentford, Cayley Robinson was the son of a stockbroker and studied at St John's Wood Academy, the Royal Academy Schools and at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1890 to 1892. He was a member of the Society of Painters in Tempera, the New English Art Club and the Royal Watercolour Society. He regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Society of British Painters. In 2010 the National Gallery put on an exhibition in the Sunley Room showing six works by Cayley Robinson The exhibition ran from 14 July to 17 October.

"The look of Cayley Robinson's paintings, so distinctive, so clear, turns out to be much more than a synthesis of past art. It is precisely what allows subversion to hide in plain sight" (Review of National Gallery exhibition, The Guardian, July 24, 2010).

Ransom, p. 395, no. 7.