Notable Sales
TWO PRESENTATION BINDINGS FOR NELL FISON (1910-1912)
GRAY, Arthur John (binder); RACKHAM, Arthur; TOOLEY, Sarah A.
Two fine presentation bindings, made by a bookbinder for the woman he should have married. Eleanor Fison and Arthur John Gray were from Cambridge and began courting around 1910, eventually becoming engaged. Arthur was a bookbinder at the family firm of J.P. Gray and Son on Green Street; Nell was training to be a nurse. When war came in 1914 Arthur joined the 1/1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment, rising to the rank of captain. On 31st July 1917 he was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele at Ypres.
Both fine copies. The Rackham externally immaculate, with some offsetting from the leather turn-ins to the free endpapers.
Two fine presentation bindings, made by a bookbinder for the woman he was courting. Eleanor Fison and Arthur John Gray were from Cambridge and began courting around 1910, eventually becoming engaged. Arthur was a bookbinder at the family firm of J.P. Gray and Son on Green Street; Nell was training to be a nurse, which makes the gift of the Florence Nightingale particularly apt. When war came in 1914 Arthur joined the 1/1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment, rising to the rank of captain. On 31st July 1917 he was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele at Ypres. Sold together as a pair.
PROVENANCE: Eleanor Fison. The Rackham inscribed for her on the title page by the bookbinder, "To Nell from Arthur, 1913"; the Tooley tooled "Nellie Fison Her Book" and "Ex Dono A.J.G." to the turn-ins.