Golden Cockerel unlimited editions

I am hoping to broaden my collecting horizons and several books published by Golden Cockerel Press have caught my eye. I see that they are available as limited editions with quarter leather a low limitation of ~150, as well as cloth-bound unlimited editions. Can anyone comment on the production quality of the latter? For example, do they generally use different paper and how well does it stack up to the more costly limited edition alternative? I'm trying to figure out if it's worth 3x the cost to get the limited variants.

>1 ubiquitousuk:

I've only owned one Golden Cockerel Book. That and the FS facsimile of Four Gospels. The one original GC book I owned was alright. I rarely try to buy GC books b/c the premium is so high compared to other fine presses. I guess they just have that reputation going for them. I was not aware that they have cloth bound unlimited editions, but If you're going to collect them you'd probably want to get the deluxe issues, full leather, yada yada instead of the normal numbered issues. Seems like quite a few of their books have deluxe issues above the normal numbered.

I am not aware of any GCP unlimited editions. You may be confusing that with standard and de luxe subsets within a limited edition. GCPs standard LEs were usually cloth (or quarter-leather with cloth sides), Phil their de luxe LEs were full leather.

>3 ultrarightist: As an example of what I mean, here is a limited edition in quarter leather with a limitation of 150:
https://www.jonkers.co.uk/rare-book/7264/goat-green/golden-cockerel-press
and its unlimited plain cloth variant:
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30590979793

Or another limited edition:
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=18800825803
with an unlimited version:
https://chaucer-bookshop.co.uk/book/16640/view

Nb. I picked grubby copies of the unlimited editions so that one can see their cloth binding. Usually, they would come in a dust wrapper. Confusing matters even more, both of the above books also seem to have been published in a softcover format by GCP (e.g., https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30742749278).

>4 ubiquitousuk: Interesting. 'Unlimited' is printed right there in there book. I was not aware of this.

According to Wikipedia unlimited editions were introduced in the 1930s after Christopher Sandford took over the press.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Cockerel_Press

These unlimited editions were a failed experiment of limited duration. Consequently, one doesn't encounter them often. Normally, what we see on the market are the regulars and the specials. For example, Phyllis Hartnoll's The Grecian Enchanted (1952) was done in an edition of 360 copies: 300 regulars bound in a three-piece cloth binding and 60 specials bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe which reproduced the cloth binding in leather, with no unlimited editon produced. By the way, this book is magnificent: https://www.librarything.com/topic/306680

>1 ubiquitousuk: For the sake of posterity I'm now in the position to answer my own question.

Roughly speaking, the limited editions were usually printed on Arnold hand- or mould-made paper (a rag paper), hand numbered, often quarter-bound in leather, and sometimes signed. The unlimited editions were generally printed on machine-made paper, unnumbered, cloth bound, and supplied with a paper dust jacket.

Examples of books with both a limited and unlimited edition include: Goat Green, Ana The Runner, Lady From Yesterday, Mr Chambers and Persephone, The White Llama, Chanticleer, Pertelote, and Cockalorum.

Interestingly, the unlimited edition didn't always represent a downgrade in everyone's view. From Cock-a-Hoop: "Though the specials of Cockalorum, printed on rag paper and bound in quarter morocco, make fine books, the large size of Perpetua titling on the spine was a mistake; a lighter face would have been less overbearing. The rag paper was not so sympathetic to the engravings as the smoother machine-made used for the ordinaries, and in fact this was usually the case where two papers were used."

The same Cock-a-Hoop entry informs us that 2250 copies of the unlimited edition of Cockalorum were printed, against the 250 specials.

One thing I haven't been able to figure out is the story behind the paper-wrapped copies. For example, Pertelote has this to say of Goat Green: "150 signed, numbered copies, on Arnold's hand-made paper, 1/4 bound in green morocco with canvas boards. Price 30s. Unlimited edition on macine-made paper, bound in green cloth, with grey jacket wrapper." No mention of the paperback unlimited copies that show up on the secondary market.

The story behind the paper-wrapped copies can be found in Roderick Cave & Sarah Manson's History of The Golden Cockerel Press 1920-1960.

The unlimited editions were introduced by Anthony Sandford (Christopher Sandford's brother) when he joined the GCP as a partner in 1936. He believed that the cheap editions sold in ordinary bookshops would introduce the GCP to a wider audience and thereby increase sales of the limited editions. But he printed too many copies, the press lost a lot of money and gained a large number of unsold unbound copies, and Anthony Sandford withdrew from the partnership in 1938.

Later the paper shortages of the 1939-45 war created a market for the unsold sheets. Quoting from p171 of Cave & Manson:

By 1943 most of the Golden Cockerel backlist had been sold. It was a boom time for publishers. After an anxious time at the start of the war when sales were very poor indeed, the demand for new books now meant the Cockerel partners could expect to sell out an edition completely, in a very short time - if only they could get it printed.

They had disposed of the remaining copies of the unlimited novels published in the late thirties. ... But (as George McNeil reminded Sandford in June 1942) they still had about five hundred copies each of Whitfield's two books, and of The Hansom Cab, Goat Green and The White Llama, in sheets at the Chiswick Press. At McNeil's suggestion, these were quickly issued in paper covers for sale at half-a-crown each. For printing the covers they used the type for the original dustjackets (still standing at the Chiswick Press) and various coloured papers.

The History of The Golden Cockerel Press was published in 2002 and is long out of print, but copies can easily be found for £70/$95 which is little more than the original price.

>9 tim_rylance: Sincere thanks for solving the mystery!

I recently had the chance to buy A History of The Golden Cockerel Press for about £30 and, not knowing the going rate, let the opportunity pass. It seems I will indeed now have to swallow the bitter pill of paying two to three times that price. I'd love to say the lesson is learned, but experience suggests that non-buyers remorse will continue to haunt my book collecting life—despite the best efforts of those in this community to remedy this particular ailment!

Since posting >8 ubiquitousuk: I have acquired a limited edition copy of Mr Chambers and Persephone and had the opportunity to compare it to its unlimited edition. I agree with Sandford's assessment: the printing turned out better on the machine-made paper. I don't think the quality of materials in the limited edition (quarter leather binding and hand-made paper) are sufficient to offset this advantage of the unlimited one.