Pennyroyal Press "Billy Budd"

Pennyroyal Press has just announced a centennial edition of Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd”, illustrated with 14 new woodcuts by Barry Moser. There are fifty copies in the edition, forty for sale, printed on Biblio and Kitakata papers and bound in a quarter leather Bradel-style binding with Japanese cloth sides and enclosed in a drop-spine box. $3500.
A prospectus can be found at
http://www.letterpress.com/billybudd.pdf
The printing is finished and the edition is at the bindery, Cloverleaf Studio in Austin Texas, with copies scheduled to be available in time for exhibition at The Grolier Club in September, 2024.
Inquiries to
moser.pennyroyal@gmail.com

>1 letterpressdotcom: Magnificent! Wish I had a spare $3500... sigh. But I hope if someone here purchases it to please post lots of pictures :)

>1 letterpressdotcom: Thanks for sharing - just sent an e-mail to expand on my Melville fine press collection. You made my day. ;)

As always, stunning artwork by Mr. Moser. He's so strong at portraits.

Didn't think there would be any new publications from the press, so this is a nice surprise.

Outside my budget, but if I were going to splurge, a Moser book would be one of the ones I'd do it on!

>6 Shadekeep: +1

https://www.librarything.com/topic/303241

>8 dlphcoracl: Yes, that’s the subject of probably my keenest non-buyer’s remorse.

Impossible to find, but nice to look at.

More of >8 dlphcoracl: here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/339278

>8 dlphcoracl: What was the original price? Definitely beautiful, but it's for the one-percenters. Most of us have difficulty purchasing a numbered Suntup in the $500 range because it costs so much! Once a book is in the thousands, it's unreachable for most. But that's not to say I don't appreciate the beautiful pictures, but again, I think it needs to be put in perspective.

>12 astropi: I have the original invoice with my copy: $620 in 1998. I know of at least two copies that have sold for less than $400 in the past few years.

>13 gmacaree: Thank you! That's amazing that two copies have sold for less than $400, I'm sure many people on here are now bemoaning not having had the opportunity to purchase them... I know I am :)

By the way, $620 in 1998 amounts to nearly $1700 today!

>14 astropi: Interestingly, the $620 original price was far too low compared to the cost of producing the books. I'll quote directly from the letter to the original purchaser from Ben and Debbie Alterman:

"As the years went by, it became apparent how much work was necessary to complete the edition, so we eventually have had to raise our list price for new orders to $1200. However, we are still honoring the original price quoted to our early customers. If you wish to purchase the copy we reserved for you, please send a check for $620.00 ..."

There doesn’t appear to be a dedicated Pennyroyal Press thread, so I thought I’d sneak into this one. Does anyone have insight into their edition of Ovid’s The Amores?

>16 Shotcaller: There doesn’t appear to be a dedicated Pennyroyal Press thread...

https://www.librarything.com/topic/115929

>17 mr.philistine: Perhaps I was the real Mr. Philistine all along. And thanks!