Charles Rickets could use several variants of his name, and did so in the colophons of the Vale Press editions. He designed the books that were printed under his supervision at the Ballantyne Press in London where a hand-press was reserved for this work.
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| Colophon (detail) of Milton, Early Poems (Vale Press, 1896) |
The colophon of the first book, Milton's Early Poems (1896) mentions: 'Seen through the press by Charles Sturt. The decorations are designed and cut on the wood by Charles Ricketts under whose supervision the book has been printed by the Ballantyne Press'. The name Sturt was a pseudonym of Ricketts.
The second book, Walter Savage Landor's Epicurus, Leontion and Ternissa (1896), had a similar colophon text including the phrase: 'the build of the book and its decoration being by Charles Ricketts.'
The name Charles Ricketts also appears in the subsequently published volumes.
However, for Vaughan's Sacred Poems Being a Selection (1897) the name 'C.S. Ricketts' is chosen, perhaps because Ricketts thought that this form of the name fitted more easily into the cross-shaped colophon.
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| Colophon of Vaughan's Sacred Poems Being a Selection (1897) |
The next volume, again, has the name 'Charles Ricketts': The Poems & Sonnets of Henry Constable (1897), but immediately afterwards, in Lucius Apuleius, The Excellent Narration of the Marriage of Cupide and Psyches (1897), a third variant is introduced: 'Charles S. Ricketts.'
A fourth variant, 'C. Ricketts', appears in a volume written by Ricketts himself: Charles Ricketts, A Defence of the Revival of Printing (1899). 'C. Ricketts' is mentioned as the book's designer in the colophon; binding and title page give the author's name as 'Charles Ricketts'. Does this indicate modesty? There was room enough for the full first name in the colophon.
There seems to be no consistency in format, chronology, author or genre, indicating that each colophon was rewritten (with the exception of the Vale Shakespeare volumes) and that there was no absolute preference, except that the name form 'Charles Ricketts' was favoured, and that the less popular version Charles S. Ricketts was used only twice.
In one case, Ricketts's name is not mentioned at all (except in the publisher's name Hacon & Ricketts); this concerns Maurice de Guérin's The Centaur. The Bacchante (1899). The omission, unique for Vale Press books, may have been an oversight, as the text of this colophon differed from the preceding because this was the first Vale Press book to be illustrated not by Ricketts but by his friend T.S. Moore.
List of variants (titles have been taken from the front of the book)
Charles Ricketts [74 volumes]
[1] Milton, Early Poems (1896); [2] Walter Savage Landor, Epicurus, Leontion and Ternissa (1896); [3] John Suckling, The Poems (1896); [4] John Gray, Spiritual Poems, Chiefly Done Out of Several Languages (1896); [5] William Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim (1896); [6] John Drayton, Nimphidia and the Muses Elizium (1896); [7] Thomas Campion, Fifty Songs (1896); [8] Matthew Arnold, Empedocles on Etna. A Dramatic Poem (1896); [9] William Blake, The Book of Thel. Songs of Innocence. And Songs of Experience (1897), [10] Michael Field, Fair Rosamund (1897); [11] The Poems & Sonnets of Henry Constable (1897); [12] E.B. Browning, Sonnets From the Portuguese (1897); [13] Charles Ricketts & Lucien Pissarro, De la typographie en de l'harmonie de la page imprimée. William Morris et son influence sur les arts et métiers (1898); [14-15] The Rowley Poems of Thomas Chatterton (2 volumes, 1898); [16] Michael Field, The World at Auction (1898); [17] Lyrical Poems of Shelley (1898); [18-19] The Poems of John Keats (2 volumes, 1898); [20] Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Blesses Damozel (1898); [21] William Blake, Poetical Sketches (1899); [22] S.T. Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In Seven Parts (1899); [23] Robert Browning, Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1899); [24-62] The Vale Shakespeare edition (39 volumes, 1900-1903); [63] Michael Field, The Race of Leaves (1901); [64] Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1901); [65-67] The Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley (3 volumes, 1901-1902); [68] Poems From Wordsworth (1902); [69] Ecclesiastes; or, The Preacher, and The Song of Solomon (1902); [70] The Parables (1903); [71] Michael Field, Julia Domna (1903); [72] King James of Scotland, The Kings Quair (1903); [73] Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (1903); [74] T. Sturge Moore, Danaë (1903).
C.S. Ricketts [9 volumes]
[1] Vaughan's Sacred Poems Being a Selection (1897); [2] D.G. Rossetti, Hand and Soul (1899); [3] Shakespeare's Sonnets. Reprinted from the Edition of 1609 (1899); [4] Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam (1900); [5] Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poems (1900); [6-7] The Life of Benvenuto Cellini (2 volumes, only one with a colophon, 1900); [8] Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Urn Burial, Christian Morals, and Other Essays (1902); [9] William Meinhold, Mary Schweidler, The Amber Witch, The Most Interesting Trial for Witchcraft Ever Known [...] (1903).
Charles S. Ricketts [2 volumes]
[1] Lucius Apuleius, The Excellent Narration of the Marriage of Cupide and Psyches (1897); [2] The Sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney (1898).
C. Ricketts [3 volumes]
[1] Lucius Apuleius, De Cupidinis et Pschyces Amoribus Fabula Anilis (1901); [2] A Catalogue of Mr. Shannon's Lithographs [the title page mentions his name twice, as author and illustrator: 'Charles Ricketts'] (1902); [3] Charles Ricketts, A Bibliography of the Books Issued by Hacon & Ricketts [introduction signed: Charles Ricketts] (1904).
