1aaronpepperdine
I took a drive down to Portland last week and spent a few hours browsing the shelves at Powells. While in the classics section, I found the Heritage Press Kredel-illustrated Decameron bound in brown leather. Does anyone know whether this was a special HP publication? Or maybe just someone's rebinding project?
2leccol
The Kredel Decameron was issued by the LEC as a special publication in 1940, I believe. It was half bound in sheepskin which is always suspect. I have never seen one without significant rubbing. Too much rubbing for the asking price. It is in two volumes as was the first LEC designed by T. M. Clelland in russet colored linen. I don't know about the Heritgage Press edition, but Django probably does. Any early LECs or Heritage Press books bound in leather are suspect.
3Django6924
Actually, for the first decade and a half of the Heritage Press' existence, many of its books were available in full leather bindings. Series L (1947--1948) saw the Heritage Decameron listed as available in a Deluxe Edition in full brown leather binding. (That same year saw a Deluxe Edition of Two Years Before the Mast in a full blue leather binding.)
These books are rare and usually fetch 10--15 times the price of a regular edition when found in Fine Condition. I have 4 such: the Angelo-illustrated Song of Songs, the Szyk-illustrated Rubaiyat, A Shropshire Lad and David Coppperfield, and once had Lust for Life in a full yellow leather binding, which I sent back to the seller as it was too musty to put amongst my other books.
These Deluxe Editions are not to be confused with certain special order Heritage books which were bought by certain companies to give as gifts (usually Christmas presents). A principal client for these gift editions was the Illinois Gear and Machine Division. I have a few of these books (mostly from the 1950s) and they are somewhat like Easton Press editions. Later, when MBI took over the Heritage Press and morphed it into the Easton Press, there were some Heritage Press editions bound in leather, though the presentation wasn't as sumptuous as the normal Easton Press version. I have one of these The Poems of E. A. Poe, and it can't compare in the slightest to the original HP edition in the American Poets standard binding.
These books are rare and usually fetch 10--15 times the price of a regular edition when found in Fine Condition. I have 4 such: the Angelo-illustrated Song of Songs, the Szyk-illustrated Rubaiyat, A Shropshire Lad and David Coppperfield, and once had Lust for Life in a full yellow leather binding, which I sent back to the seller as it was too musty to put amongst my other books.
These Deluxe Editions are not to be confused with certain special order Heritage books which were bought by certain companies to give as gifts (usually Christmas presents). A principal client for these gift editions was the Illinois Gear and Machine Division. I have a few of these books (mostly from the 1950s) and they are somewhat like Easton Press editions. Later, when MBI took over the Heritage Press and morphed it into the Easton Press, there were some Heritage Press editions bound in leather, though the presentation wasn't as sumptuous as the normal Easton Press version. I have one of these The Poems of E. A. Poe, and it can't compare in the slightest to the original HP edition in the American Poets standard binding.
4WildcatJF
Wow, I didn't know there was more "special edition" Heritage titles. I'll need to add those to the blog somewhere.
5skyschaker
>2 leccol:
Leccol,
I got my copy of Kredel illustrated Decameron in 2005 and the book is in Fine condition. I explored it again after having read your post, and with a help of a magnifying glass I could find a tiny rubbing at the bottom of vol.1. I had never seen it before, it is so microscopic. I paid $70 for 2 vols, the SC however is VG.
In fact, both books were hardly opened by the previous owner(s).
Also, I would not agree with you, when you say that early LECs bound in leather is a suspect. I believe, there is quite a bunch of them.
Gulliver
Rip van Winkle
Coleridge
Two medieval tales
American poets
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Kasidah
Rubaiyat
and a few more
Leccol,
I got my copy of Kredel illustrated Decameron in 2005 and the book is in Fine condition. I explored it again after having read your post, and with a help of a magnifying glass I could find a tiny rubbing at the bottom of vol.1. I had never seen it before, it is so microscopic. I paid $70 for 2 vols, the SC however is VG.
In fact, both books were hardly opened by the previous owner(s).
Also, I would not agree with you, when you say that early LECs bound in leather is a suspect. I believe, there is quite a bunch of them.
Gulliver
Rip van Winkle
Coleridge
Two medieval tales
American poets
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Kasidah
Rubaiyat
and a few more
6rogerthat2
This seems to be a leather HP Decameron. Not in the best of shape.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/226915245837
https://www.ebay.com/itm/226915245837
7encephalophagy
>3 Django6924: I enjoy tracking down these leatherbound "deluxe" Heritage Press editions. Having never seen one before today, I assumed the 1940 WITW had to be out there since the other 2 special editions from 1940 published by the LEC (i.e. Decameron and Grapes of Wrath) were also issued in full leather Heritage Press deluxe editions. Hard to tell if this one is a rebound copy but seems like it could be original, if suspiciously well-preserved:
https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/WIND-WILLOWS-GRAHAME-Kenneth-illustrated-...
Also, it seems odd to me that Decameron and Two Years before the Mast would have been published in deluxe, leatherbound editions when these titles were reprinted by Heritage Press in 1947-1948 instead of with the first issues in 1940 and 1941 respectively. I had assumed there were no deluxe Heritage Press editions issued after 1940. Two Years is especially interesting to me since this is the only deluxe edition that I have never seen. Does anyone have any images to share of this one or additional details on deluxe editions issued after 1940?
https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/WIND-WILLOWS-GRAHAME-Kenneth-illustrated-...
Also, it seems odd to me that Decameron and Two Years before the Mast would have been published in deluxe, leatherbound editions when these titles were reprinted by Heritage Press in 1947-1948 instead of with the first issues in 1940 and 1941 respectively. I had assumed there were no deluxe Heritage Press editions issued after 1940. Two Years is especially interesting to me since this is the only deluxe edition that I have never seen. Does anyone have any images to share of this one or additional details on deluxe editions issued after 1940?
8rogerthat2
Nice find! Though I wonder if it's a rebind... It doesn't look like garbage leather as all the others do.
I see 1 copy of List for Life on Abe, but no pictures (yellow leather). 2 copies of Grapes of Wrath.
I'm not seeing any Two Years either.
I see 1 copy of List for Life on Abe, but no pictures (yellow leather). 2 copies of Grapes of Wrath.
I'm not seeing any Two Years either.
9Django6924
>7 encephalophagy:
Well, the LEC and HP Wind in the Willows are infamous for their greatly inflated prices, but this copy takes the cake for chutzpah. And I suspect it is a rebind as Michael Bussacco's Heritage Press Catalog and Checklist only shows Wind in the Willows as the clothbound edition from July, 1944 (Series H) and a later Connecticut reprint as well as the Heritage Illustrated Bookshelf edition.
As far as I can tell, excluding the special gift editions for Illinois Gear, and the Connecticut reprints bound in leather such as the Poe's Poems I once received when a Heritage Club member, the last of the leather-bound HPs from the Macy era was Barnaby Rudge in April, 1953 (Series 17). This seems like a particularly odd choice given that one of the marketing claims for the HP Dickens novels was the uniformity of the Clarence P. Horning-designed gray and scarlet cloth binding.
Well, the LEC and HP Wind in the Willows are infamous for their greatly inflated prices, but this copy takes the cake for chutzpah. And I suspect it is a rebind as Michael Bussacco's Heritage Press Catalog and Checklist only shows Wind in the Willows as the clothbound edition from July, 1944 (Series H) and a later Connecticut reprint as well as the Heritage Illustrated Bookshelf edition.
As far as I can tell, excluding the special gift editions for Illinois Gear, and the Connecticut reprints bound in leather such as the Poe's Poems I once received when a Heritage Club member, the last of the leather-bound HPs from the Macy era was Barnaby Rudge in April, 1953 (Series 17). This seems like a particularly odd choice given that one of the marketing claims for the HP Dickens novels was the uniformity of the Clarence P. Horning-designed gray and scarlet cloth binding.
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