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BOOKS

THE DOVES PRESS


Somewhere between the ornate eccentricities of Kelmscott in the late Victorian period and the mathematical grids of the Bauhaus in the 1920s lay the brief golden period of the Doves Press (1901-1916). Usually bound in simple but luxuriant white vellum with plain gold type on the spine, and typified by rich black and red printings that dominate the translucent pages without overwhelming them, Doves Press books are among the most sought-after by collectors of rare, private press editions (the Doves English Bible sells for tens of thousands). Though many Modernists of the period saw no other options but to completely abandon the past, the painstaking productions of T. Cobden-Sanderson, the idealistic founder of Doves, were unmistakably modern in their austere restraint, while maintaining a firm rooting in a worthy and beautiful tradition.

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