The Lasting Beauty of The Golden Cockerel Press

In the early days of Swan’s Fine Books – when the shop had recently opened – I would visit the ABAA Book Fairs and introduce myself to those who (in my eyes) had already risen to the heights of being venerable antiquarian booksellers. Each of them would ask, “And what is your specialty?” I would hem, and I would haw, until I finally realized that my specialty would find me, in time.

And it did. One day I realized that the books which were making my heart pound and the bibliophilic madness come into my eyes were… fine press books. I appreciated the craftsmanship, the fact that they were (and remain today) either entirely or largely made by hand (handset type, hand-made paper, illustrations printed from blocks, etc.). I fell in love with their beauty – both the austere perfection for which Cobden-Sanderson strove, or the riotous, lavish mediaeval look of the Kelmscott Press books, or the mere touch of the impressions left on the paper…they all spoke to my heart.

Recently we were fortunate enough to assemble, through three or four various acquisitions, a stellar collection of the books issued by The Golden Cockerel Press. Hence, the e-list just sent out (if you’re not on our email list and would like to be, please let us know).

Was GCP truly a private press? Was it even truly a fine press? Strictly speaking, a private press is (almost by definition) not a commercial operation. It is done for the love of making a beautiful book (however one defined such). The Golden Cockerel Press is a bit more complicated.

At its inception, when the GCP was founded by Hal Taylor, his wife and two of her friends in 1920, it was intended to be “a proving ground for literature”. ¹ And they did a fairly good job at it. However, when Robert Gibbings, along with his wife Moira and their friend Mary Wiggins purchased the Press (in 1924), a different type of GCP book was born.

Of the approximately seventy books produced at the Press while Gibbings was in charge, only eleven were issued without illustrations. For about half of the books, the illustrations were provided by Gibbings himself (eighteen books) and Eric Gill (approximately a dozen). Other illustrators, whose works are individually collected, included Eric Ravilious, J.E. Laboureur and David Jones (these three collectively illustrating about another quarter of Gibbings’ books.

The incredible artwork by these artists got to me. I no longer cared whether the GCP was a fine or private press. In my eyes they meet the definition of “the book beautiful”.

Per Cave and Manson, to sum up the “success” of the GCP during the time Gibbings was in charge, the books issued during that time were “almost always agreeable – sometimes even outstanding – examples of book design.” ²

Just a few weeks ago, as I was preparing to issue an e-list featuring the Golden Cockerel Press books, Los Angeles County was battling a truly horrific series of wildfires. In thinking about this and the many other troubles which seem to abound in our weary world, my thoughts went back to something written in the 1945 Easter Greetings from the Golden Cockerel Press:

“As the days wax and lighten in England, as the spring-flowers open their enamelled eyes, and the small fowls make melody, the Golden Cockerel is wishing, for all his dearly beloved Patrons in all lands, a swift return of peace and goodwill, of security and freedom, of home-coming and reunion, of help, support and small comforts, and, last but not least, the solace, excitement, and friendship of books.”

We hope you enjoyed reading these few words on the GCP, for which we borrowed rather heavily from Cave and Manson. We highly recommend their book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the Press and its various incarnations.

¹ Roderick Cave and Sarah Manson, A History of The Golden Cockerel Press, pp. 226-227

² Ibid, p. 231