452. This Belongs to C.S. Ricketts

Books from the library of Charles Ricketts often bear his autograph signature, or dedications from the authors to the artist, but no bookplate. Ricketts designed a couple of bookplates - one for the critic J.W. Gleeson White, one for the collector John Morgan, and one for the publisher Copeland & Day, - but not one for his own use.

When he lent out books, he wrote his name on the front free endpaper, and added a formula that indicated that the book had not become the property of the borrower. In his biography about Ricketts, Paul Delaney referred to such a copy from the collection of Dr Robert Hillenbrand. Upon inquiry it appeared that Dr. Hillenbrand still has this book in his possession and he sent some scans for this blog (for which I sincerely thank Dr. Robert Hillenbrand).

The inscription reads:

This belongs to C.S. Ricketts & not to R. Wills.

Maurice Maeterlinck, The Life of the Bee (1901):
owner's inscription of Charles Ricketts
(Collection Dr Robert Hillenbrand)

The inscription is written in a copy of Maurice Maeterlinck's The Life of the Bee, translated by Alfred Sutro, and published by George Allen, London, in 1901. The book contains a postcard written by Maeterlinck on both sides; it dates from much later, 15 January 1921, and thanks Ricketts for his work on The Betrothel that premiered at the Gaiety Theatre on 8 January 1921. Ricketts didn't like the play, which he deemed pompous and sentimental, but his designs for the scenery and dresses were admired, the play was a success, and Ricketts noticed: "There was a fairly solid body of opinion that nothing quite so beautiful had ever been seen upon the English stage" (Self-Portrait, 1939, p. 331). 

Postcard from Maurice Maeterlinck to Charles Ricketts,
15 January 1921 (Collection Dr Robert Hillenbrand)

Dr Hillenbrand remembered that the book, The Life of the Bee, was bequeathed to him "by my beloved great-aunt, who loved buying fancy books. One of the attached scans is of the fragment of the catalogue from which she bought it before WW2." (Email from Robert Hillenbrand to PvC, 18 March 2020).

This copy was acquired from Henry Sotheran on 3 February 1937. It had been sold before in 1933, by Christie's, in an auction of "valuable books on the fine arts from the collection of C.H. Shannon, Esq., R.A. and the late Charles Ricketts, Esq., R.A."

From this we can conclude that the inscription had done its job. R. Wills had understood that this was not her or his book and had neatly returned it to the lender.

451. Ricketts and The Immediate Soundscape

Now that the COVID-19 virus is making victims worldwide, I had to think of the two years after World War I, when the Spanish flu killed millions. I looked for a possible response from Charles Ricketts to that pandemic, but I found nothing.

Instead, I found a passage about his taste for unmusical sounds - and I had to think of a contemporary book artist and draughtsman about whose work I recently wrote (for a catalogue to be published this year), Sam Winston. In an interview he said he was fascinated by his 'immediate soundscape':

I found a 10 hour loop of the Skype ringtone on YouTube recently – it's not a favorite song but that's the last thing I remember actively looking to listening to part of. Beyond that – the soundtrack I follow is mainly whatever is going on in the immediate soundscape – right now that's a police car in Hackney (London) and a cement mixer. Sorry to be so obtuse but I think we miss a lot when we only specify certain things to be listened to or watched – it limits the scope of what can be heard and seen.

[The interview is published online at Typeroom.]

R.N. Roland Holst, cover design for his collection of essays Over Kunst (On Art) (1923)

Ricketts mentioned similar sounds in a letter to the Dutch artist Richard Roland Holst. He shares with him his experiences while reading François René de Chateaubriand's work Mémoires d'outre tombe (Memoirs from Beyond the Grave):

The book interested me immensely; that part of it in which he is idealistic, romantic, and talks of the Sylphide is simply odious, and drips with pomatum, hair-wash, and any kind of sticky substance; but there are marvellous pages on his childhood, exquisite pieces of description throughout - a marvel on the battle of Waterloo which he hears from a distance); vivid polemical and historical pages on the Revolution and Napoleon; these are like Tacitus, written with a sort of staccato like the Roman; should you read the book, skip all about his soul (he had a damned bad sham one); some of the sentimental pages are not uninteresting, though he was in love only with himself: these have the queer false and pathetic charm of a harp or hand-organ heard in the distance, but this is probably meaningless to you unless, like me, you like ridiculous sounds such as post-horns or, for that matter, derelict and decayed musical boxes and clocks out of tune.

450. Three Letters from Charles Ricketts

This 450th blog is written by John Aplin, who intends to publish the collected letters of Ricketts and Shannon, of which this blog contains a preview. This edition will significantly complement our knowledge of these two artists and their world. Of course, the upcoming edition will be extensively annotated (unlike this blog). 

We wish to express our thanks to the executors of the Charles Ricketts estate, Leonie Sturge-Moore and Charmian O'Neil, for kindly granting permission to publish these letters. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to John Aplin for his contribution to this 450th blog post.

Charles Shannon, portrait of Gordon Bottomley (drawing, 1924),
reproduced in Gordon Bottomley, Poems of Thirty Years (1925),
with an inscription to Frederick H. Evans, 1939

Three Letters from Charles Ricketts to Gordon Bottomley

I recently completed editing the complete correspondence exchanged between Thomas Sturge Moore and Gordon Bottomley, the three volumes of which will shortly be available on the online platform InteLex. I had been unprepared for just how much the lives and work of Ricketts and Shannon would preoccupy the exchanges between Moore and Bottomley, acquiring an enhanced significance after Ricketts's death in 1931, when the issue of honouring and preserving his legacy became their shared concern.

From that project, a more ambitious one emerges, for I am now starting to edit the Collected Letters of Ricketts and Shannon. My first thought of focussing on Ricketts alone was quickly dismissed, for in letters to 'Michael Field' (for example) it would prove impossible and undesirable to disentangle his contributions from Shannon's, especially as a number are actually joint efforts, written as though by one voice. But quite apart from that practical challenge, for anyone interested in their life-long companionship as well as in their individual artistic outputs, their letters are a vital resource and deserve to be made available as a complete entity.

This work is just beginning, and I am still endeavouring to locate all surviving materials. I should be especially grateful to learn of letters by Ricketts or Shannon in private hands, so that I might contact their current owners. Others may lurk uncatalogued in smaller public collections or local studies centres, and information about these would also be very welcome (johnjamesaplin [at] gmail.com).

Gordon Bottomley received dozens of letters and cards from Ricketts, all of which he carefully preserved, as well as a smaller number from Shannon. These are all now at the British Library amongst the Bottomley Papers. He would loan his Ricketts letters to Sturge Moore when he was working on Self-Portrait (1939), and extracts from quite a number of them were used. Indeed, some of Ricketts's best surviving letters were those written to Bottomley, stretching from 1905 through to 1931, and their friendship was sealed by Ricketts's designs for the covers for four of Bottomley's books, for which he refused any payment. Three of his letters to Bottomley are included here, with a few explanatory comments before each one. Ricketts's deletions and insertions are recorded.

Gordon Bottomley, Gruach and Britain's Daughter (American edition, 1921)
Cover designed by Charles Ricketts

Letter 1 

Bottomley had sent a copy of his poetry collection Chambers of Imagery (1907). The Vale Press De Cupidinis et Psyches Amoribus appeared in 1901, and Ricketts's Titian in 1910.

LANSDOWNE HOUSE, | LANSDOWNE ROAD, | HOLLAND PARK, W.

[1 July 1907]

Dear Bottomley

I beg a thousand pardons for never having answered your charming letter, I have no excuse excepting the pressure of quite trivial occupations.

            I am quite charmed that you should wish to possess a piece of my pen work, the difficulty is this, all most early pen work or nearly all has been sold, or cut away or thrown away, and all that I could can put at your dispo choice disposal is a choice between a pen study or two done 5 years ago, or one [line obliterated] of the designs for the “De Cupidinis et Psyches Amoribus” of which I enclose two engravers pulls with corrections for identification.

            Shannon begs me to apologise to you for never having acknowledged your charming book, like me he suffers from a reluctance to write letters and an absence of conscience or any moral sense whatever.

            With kindest Remembrances from both of us

            Believe me | Yours Sincerely | C Ricketts

P.S. Shannon thinks most of the poems quite charming. I have to own that I have not read them yet. I am living an idiotic life for another fortnight ploughing through my Titian book.

Gordon Bottomley, A Vision of Giorgione (1922),
spine design by Charles Ricketts (ordinary and deluxe edition)

Letter 2

Ricketts would eventually secure the Rossetti watercolour 'The Passover in the Holy Family' (1855-6). He presented it to the Tate Gallery in 1916 in memory of Michael Field. 

LANSDOWNE HOUSE, | LANSDOWNE ROAD, | HOLLAND PARK, W.

[1 May 1911]

My Dear Bottomley

Are you back again in your home? For some time I have owed you a letter and hold a small pagan god Idol for you which we purchased in Egypt, the land of real false Gods. I forget also what we decided about a bronze i.e. which one you wanted. On hearing from you all this can be set in Order.

            You once said you knew the Severns well, who own the unfinished Rossetti Watercolour “The Passover.” Could you, do you think, ask them if they would consent to part with it for £200. Between our selves we can go to £300 but in these matters it is better to hold money in reserve. I have come in for a small bequest hence the offer. Should you be able to accomplish this transaction for the first price both Shannon & I will make you a present. From this you see we come from the land of bribes, backshish and all venerable forms of corruption.

            We send kindest greetings to your Wife & Self and hope you are well again.

            Sincerely yours | C Ricketts

Charles Ricketts, Pages on Art (1913)

Letter 3

A portion of this letter was used for Self-Portrait, although (as in other letters used by Sturge Moore for that volume) there is no indication that there were omissions. Both Ricketts and Sturge Moore were enraptured by the London seasons of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, and particularly by the dancing of Vaslav Nijinsky. Bottomley had sent a copy of his second series of Chambers of Imagery (1912). Ricketts's collection Pages on Art appeared in 1913.

LANSDOWNE HOUSE, | LANSDOWNE ROAD, | HOLLAND PARK, W.

[12 May 1912]

My Dear Bottomley

I am overwhelmed with shame that your charming book and gift of flowers should both have remained unacknowledged; it is most kind of you to remember us. I do not know if I agree with you about your best lines – there are many others! I hope your book will meet with some sort of notice. Unlike us painters (who meet often with the kind of notice one does not like) men of letters seem to issue their books for the delight of “Sirius”; I imagine that, as that planet is a long way off from the earth, its inhabitants may still like to read, and may be innocent of the motor, which seems to have has led to a further evaporation (evaporation by friction with the air) of that small residium [sic] of brains still left in this country. Since you were last in London, motor-mania has become so pronounced that one misses losing one[’]s life or limbs on an average twice a day, and men and women wear therigid faces as if they were being hurled through space at a pace too fearful for thought (much worse than in Dante, where they were able to pause and speak). In Shannon & myself there are growing signs of discontent which point to advancing years. England is like the platform of some vast Station, with people waiting feverishly for rapid trains for leaving that go no-where!

            Both S. and I are hard at work on rather more ambitious pictures as to size and subject. I am returning to my old Parables and contemplate some 4 or 5 of them. Shannon is working on a vast design of Winter; but of these it is unwise to speak, as they may fail, like many other more ambitious works, and exist only for “Sirius” which must possess by now quite a large series of my unfinished works. I like Sirius, it was conceived or desired by an astronomer before it was perceived; there was a mathematical need for it, then it was discovered; it moves in perpetual night, – which is the time I like best, and doubtless the star effects there are very fine. My designs for Macbeth which I declined to do for London are probably greatly appreciated there but, all this dull!

            I should tell you that your gentians still live, the bronze bells survived in dwindling companies till today when the last suddenly became thousands of years old, like the flowers in the Cairo Museum. –

            I am collecting together my old chance articles on art, with the idea of issuing them in the Autumn. Some are curiously vivid, others are curiously strange to me, as if they had been written by someone else whose mind was only partly like mine.

            I have not been to the Wagner season. One dreads the chance, or certainty of disappointment; this is my third year of abstinence. Now one hears that the second series last year was good, if the first was bad one does not take the risk. We both look forward to the Russian Dancers; they have been something like a passion during last seasons; here with them the lambent sense of beauty and desire for perfection is so great, that one watches the dancing of Schumann’s Carnaval, in crinolines and Toppers before a purple curtain, with authentic tears in one[’]s eyes, and with crumpled gloves which are split to ribbons at the end. The Chopin Valse Op 64 No 2 passes into an indescribable twylight [sic] world of beauty and tender irony; the rapid portions are played on “a la sordina”, to soundless dancing, so rapid that it seems disembodied. All that the antique world thought and said about the famous Male dancers who seduced were seduced by Empresses etc, is quite true. Nijinski outclasses in passion, beauty and magnetism all that Karsavina can do, and she is a Muse, or several Muses in one, the music of Melancholy and of Caprice, capable of expressing tragedy and even voluptuous innocence; the wildness of chastity and the sting of desire; she is the perfect instrument upon which all emotion can be rendered. He Nijinski is a living flame, the son of Hermes, or Loghi perhaps? One can not imagine his mother; probably actually some ancient ballerina in was answerable; but I prefer to believe in some sort of spontaneous nativity, at the most a passing cloud nay have attracted some fantastic and capricious god.

            Shannon joins with me in kindest greetings to your wife and to yourself

            Sincerely yours | C Ricketts

Edited by John Aplin

449. Leonard Baskin's Portrait of Charles Ricketts

In the year 2000 The Gehenna Press published a second series of portraits of book artisans called Icones Librorum Artifices. The etchings were made by Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) in his final year.

Leonard Baskin, 'Charles Ricketts', etching (2000)

The first series - including portraits of Cornelius Ploos van Amstel, Dard Hunter, Aubrey Beardsley, Sarah Prideaux, Daniel Berkely Updike and Charles Condor - was published in 1988. The second series contained portraits of Jessie King, and other artists. The prospectus for this publication contained a portrait of Ricketts and one of Charlotte Guillard. The latter had an oval shape. The one of Ricketts consists of three diamond-shaped etchings and two triangles with text; underneath is the name of Ricketts.

The etchings (one in mirror image) are identical, but one is printed in black and white, one in blue and one in red and yellow. Which portrait served as a basis, I don't know, but Baskin's portrait doesn't resemble any of the photographs of Ricketts. The moustache seems too full, the head hair too voluptuous. The accompanying text is complimentary and says that not Morris, but Ricketts has exerted the cardinal influence on book design in the late Victorian era.

448. Assorted Prints

Local sellers in England regularly offer works by Ricketts and Shannon at auctions. It takes some effort, from abroad, to keep track of these auctions. Last Saturday Bellmans in Wisborough Green, West Sussex sold a lot with assorted prints.

Bellmans, The Saturday Sale, 22 February 2020

'The Saturday Sale' (22 February 2020) included lot 113: 'a group of assorted prints' by British and European artists; a mishmash, with artists whose names were not spelled correctly. For example, the real name of 'Amanda Rassemfosse' is Armand Rassenfosse.

The lot contained eight prints, three of which were lithographs by Shannon. The whole was sold for £650.

The lithographs by Shannon are not identified by the cataloguer. The image shows that they are 'The Ebb Tide' (1917), 'The Cup of Tea' (1907), and the fan-shaped lithograph 'The Promontory' (1907/8).

Charles Shannon, 'The Cup of Tea' (1907) [detail]

A detail of 'The Cup of Tea' (this is one of ten copies printed in green) shows the intimacy of the scene. It's hard to tell if the copy in the auction was also printed in green - I think this is one of the twenty copies in black.

447.Patterned papers (appendix 2: Christie's Season 1931)

The last patterned paper Ricketts designed was used for the posthumous edition of Christie's Season 1931 - I treated this book a few blogs ago in 444. A Posthumous Season. 

An interesting aspect of decorative papers is that a certain section of a pattern (say 10 by 10 centimetres) may be repeated so often that a large sheet of decorative paper can be made with minimal means. But Ricketts worked differently, as we saw with the paper for the Shaw edition, and the patterned paper for Christie's Season 1931 was designed as one whole. The liveliness of a patterned paper depends to a large extent on that lowest common denominator of the design (for wallpapers - such as those by William Morris - it can be as much as 50 by 50 cm). 

Charles Ricketts, patterned paper for Christie's Season 1931 (detail)

However, in Ricketts's patterns, the individual elements are not repeated one-on-one; he must have drawn a sheet the size of the book. We can see this, for example, in the small decorations between the wheels. These seem to be composed of three leaves, but there is for example one where two leaves are very small compared to the third one. This ornament occurs only once.

Charles Ricketts, details of patterned paper
for Christie's Season 1931 

If we compare two copies of the book, we see that this one - strongly divergent - ornament is in exactly the same place. This too is an indication of the size of the original drawing. The area of the paper on the binding measures 25.5 by 16.2 cm.

Charles Ricketts, details of patterned paper
for Christie's Season 1931

The tips of the wings all curl in a different way. Most wings have two incisions on the right side, but some are missing that second notch.

Charles Ricketts, details of patterned paper
for Christie's Season 1931 

The book, as I wrote earlier, is bound in half grey buckram, with pasted on white cover paper displaying a repetitive design printed in blue. The winged wheel is Mercury's symbol, patron of commerce. The design on the front board contains a drawn label with a three-lined border and the title, printed in green and blue.

The original design drawing must have measured approximately 30 cm by 26 cm.

446.Patterned papers (appendix 1: Saint Joan)

For the Vale Press books Charles Ricketts designed fourteen different patterned papers. After the closure of the press he hardly ever designed such papers, but there are two exceptions, late in his life. In the meantime, he made designs for bookbindings in linen and parchment, and also designed paper covers and dust wrappers. The two patterned papers date from 1924 and 1931.

Charles Ricketts, patterned paper for Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan (1924)

The first edition of Bernard Shaw's play Saint Joan was published in June 1924, followed in October that year by an édition de luxe with illustrations by Ricketts. The plates were based on his stage settings and sketches for the London performances of March 1924 (the play had received its premiere in New York in December 1923).

The patterned paper on the boards (on a quarter linen binding) show a repeti­tive design of arms, printed in blue, and with a label printed in black, dark blue and green. Alternately, two rows of coats of arms are depicted. One row shows the coat of arms of Saint Joan (32x32 mm): two French lilies (fleurs-de-lis) in an azure field; a sword with hilt and guard in the middle. At the top should have been a crown, but Ricketts deleted that detail. The other row shows three French lilies in an azure field (the coat of arms of the French king Charles VII). This coat-of arms is slightly larger than that of Saint Joan, measuring 34 by 33 mm. In between the coat of arms crowns (again with lilies) fill up the space.

Charles Ricketts, patterned paper for Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan (1924) [detail]

The coats of arms are not all identical; there are small differences: for example, the curved leaves of the lilies are sometimes rounder, sometimes thicker.

Charles Ricketts, cover design for Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan (1924) [detail]

The title label at the top is placed in the middle of the patterned paper, slightly to the right of the cover, because of the linen binding. At first sight, the design seems to be symmetrical, with the two weapons on the left and right, and the title in the middle and below. But the word "with" has been shifted slightly to the right, and while the text underneath is fairly central, the flower and the circled dot are placed asymmetrically, creating a livelier design. 

Charles Ricketts, dust wrapper design for Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan (1924) [detail]

Similarly, the title label on the dust jacket is not symmetrical. The title and author's name are slightly to the left of the centre and the decorations to the right are closer to the line border. The drawing on the dust wrapper is characterised by a complex symbolism.

On the dust wrapper Saint Joan hangs (as it were) crucified above the pyre. The pattern of her dress shows the French lilies again. 

Charles Ricketts, dust wrapper design for
Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan (1924) [detail]

445. Charles Robert Ricketts: An Announcement

A few years ago we published a book about the true history of Ricketts's mother: Charles Ricketts's Mysterious Mother. (There are only a few copies left for sale).

C.R. Ricketts, detail of painting (undated)

Now we are working on a companion piece: a book about Ricketts's father, the sea painter Charles Robert Ricketts (1838-1883). Details will follow later.

444. A Posthumous Season

One of Charles Ricketts's first posthumous publications was a yearbook from Christie's auction house in London, Christie's Season 1931, covering the period October 1930-July 1931, and illustrated with photographs of paintings, silver objects, sculptures, furniture and stained glass windows.

Charles Ricketts, design for Christie's Season 1931

The book was published in December 1931. The foreword mentioned Ricketts:

This year it is our good fortune to have our Annual Review go forth dignified and embellished by a special cover designed by one of the most celebrated of British Artists, namely Mr. Charles Ricketts, R.A. To him our sincere thanks are due.

Charles Ricketts, design for Christie's Season 1931

These words came too late, because Ricketts had died on 7 October 1931. That's why a loosely inserted printed notice was added:

We have to record with the deepest regret that Mr. Charles Ricketts, R.A., who designed the cover for this volume, passed away while the book was in the press. C.M. & W.

The book is bound in half grey buckram, with white paper covers, with a repetitive design of a winged wheel symbolizing Mercury, patron of commerce, printed in blue. Part of the design contains a drawn label within blue and green lines and lettering by Ricketts (omitting the apostrophe) printed in green.

Charles Ricketts, design for Christie's Season 1931

443. Some Zaehnsdorf Bindings for Vale Press Books

In the 1890s, Charles Ricketts had some of the Vale Press books bound by Rivière and Sons, to a design of his own. He quickly switched to another binder, Zaehnsdorf. He had a copy of The Sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney bound to his own design for the Arts & Crafts exhibition of 1899. 

Often these bindings are not signed, neither by Ricketts, nor by the bookbinder's. The firm was founded by Joseph Zaehnsdorf (1816-1896), who had come to London in 1837. By the time bookbindings for the Vale Press were executed by the firm, it was headed by the son, Joseph William Zaehnsdorf (1853-1930).

Not all Vale Press books in a binding by Zaehnsdorf were designed by Ricketts. Later collectors often brought their books to the firm, and these bindings have traditional designs.

Zaehnsdorff binding stamp in a copy of Fifty Songs by Thomas Campion(Vale Press, 1896)

Recently I found two online images of such bindings on Vale Press books and their design was identical. Both mention the name of Zaehnsdorf on the inside of the front board, and at the back they show a blind stamp that the company used for quality bindings. Frank Broomhead described the blind stamp (in The Zaehnsdorfs (1842-1947). Craft Bookbinders. Pinner, 1986, p. 73):

This mark is a small oval tool apparently used, along with similar stamps, as a quality mark on the superior bindings produced by the firm. It represents the medieval apprentice seated at the sewing frame and is taken from the wood engraving of a binder's shop by Jost Amman, which Zaehnsdorf's used in their advertising and on their stationary [...]

Binding stamps used by Zaehnsdorf

A copy of Fifty Songs by Thomas Campion (1896) was bound in red goatskin leather, a copy of Charles Ricketts's A Catalogue of Mr. Shannon's Lithographs (1902) was bound in brown goatskin leather of the same design.

Zaehnsdorff bindings on Fifty Songs by Thomas Campion 
and A Catalogue of Mr Shannon's Lithographs

Both bindings have gilt linear tooling to covers and gilt title on spine, inner dentelles with foliate gilt tooling and silk endpapers. They may have been made for one and the same collector - but they bear no bookplates - or for an exhibition of Zaehnsdorf's work. The first was for sale at Capricorn Books in Canada, the other one was offered by Roe and Moore in London.

Zaehnsdorff bindings on Fifty Songs by Thomas Campion

442. Sybil Pye's Use of Vale Press Type for Bookbindings

In a 2012 blog post I wrote about the lettering on Sybil Pye's bookbindings. Collector Paul Mallett pointed out to me that I haven't written a sequel; so here's to it. 

Lettering on Sybil Pye binding (Daphnis and Chloe, 1893)
[collection: William Andrews Clark Library]

Blog 66. A Sybil Pye Binding (October 31, 2012) suggested that the lettering on Pye's binding could not have been Vale Type, although Marianne Tidcombe asserted this in her outstanding Women Bookbinders 1880-1920 (1996, page 148): 'The letters she used were Vale Capitals designed by Ricketts'. Why not? In the first place because the Vale letters didn't exist anymore. All lead type was melted down after the closure of the Vale Press in 1904, and Pye first tried her hand at bookbinding in 1906. Secondly, because those letters were not suitable for use on a bookbinding. The process requires special tools that can withstand the heat required for applying the text on a leather spine. For his own bindings, Ricketts had the titles set in Vale type at Ballantyne's, and then printed them on paper  labels. For his linen, parchment and leather bookbindings, plates were made based on photographs of the printed titles, and these were used as stamps for spine titling.

In her book, Tidcombe, didn't quote a source for her assertion, but Mallett reminded me of a catalogue that includes a statement by Sybil Pye herself about the binding for Apuleius's De Cupidinis et Psyches amoribus fabula anilis (1901): English Bindings 1490-1940 in the Library of J.R. Abbey, edited by G.D. Hobson (London 1940, page 176): 

The three tools used in this binding were cut to my design by Knights & Cottrell. But the letters for the title, also cut by them, were taken from capitals designed by Charles Ricketts for the Vale Press. A number of fine tools, which the artist created for bindings of his own design, were given to me by him, and I have used them on many books. A few that did not go with my style, I have passed on to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where the whole set will eventually be found.

Knights & Cottrell made the tools and based them on photographs after printed Vale Press characters. That explains two points. First of all that the characters are slightly different from the real Vale Press characters and secondly why the titles on Pye's bindings are not always in alignment, as a separate tool was made for each letter, and she had to stamp them one by one on the spines. See, for example, her binding for the Vale Press edition of Thomas Browne's Religio Medici.

Sybil Pye, binding for Vale Press edition of Thomas Browne,
Religio Medici (1902, binding: 1940)

Tidcombe also pointed out that Pye didn't use Arabic numerals, but preferred to 'form dates with roman numerals'. She had no choice, because Ricketts hadn't designed any numbers for the Vale Type. 

Conclusion: Pye didn't use Vale Type for her bindings, but used specially cut tools of which the design was based on the Vale Type.

441. An Encyclopaedic Manifesto

The private presses of the 1890s wanted to secure a place of their own in the publishing world and marked their territory with manifestos on the 'revival of printing' and with bibliographies of their own publications. William Morris as well as Charles Ricketts and Lucien Pissarro did so, and others would succeed them.

Ricketts's manifestos appeared shortly after each other: in March 1898 Charles Ricketts's and Lucien Pissarro's De la typographie et de l'harmonie de la page imprimée. William Morris et son influence sur les arts et métiers appeared; in June 1899 A Defence of the Revival of Printing followed. Finally, in 1904 Ricketts published the bibliography of his Vale Press, preceded by an essay that can once again be read as a manifesto.

Charles Ricketts, 'Book-Printing' (1902)
[Illustration: courtesy of John Aplin]

A lesser-known essay by Ricketts is actually also a manifesto, although it is disguised as a lemma in an encyclopaedia. This is the lemma 'Book-Printing' written by Ricketts for the tenth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica from 1902. Although the Vale Press was in its final phase, it would remain active for at least another year.

And although readers would expect a contribution on the art of printing in general, and even though the editors had asked Ricketts for such a contribution shortly after lemmata on 'Bookbinding' and 'Book-Plates', he delivered an article with a much limited scope, focusing on the 'revival of printing', starting with Morris's Kelmscott Press, continuing on the Vale Press and ending with a short list of other presses in America and England (including the Doves Press). 

Ricketts did not focus on the latest technical developments, but on the recent rise of private presses run by artists and especially on the idea that a book should be designed by one artist, in other words: a graphic designer.

Ricketts seized the opportunity to consolidate his position by naming his own Vale Press second and spending almost as many words on it as he did on the Kelmscott Press. Moreover, this essay did not appear as an article in a fancy magazine, or as a newspaper article to be quickly forgotten, but as an official lemma in the most important English encyclopaedia. His vision was now laid down for eternity in a publication considered extremely reliable.

Because this manifesto is less well known than the others, the complete text follows here.

Book-Printing. - The latest development in printing, in which each component of a book is controlled by a sense of harmony and beauty, owes its conception and realization to William Morris, and takes definite form in the founts and books of the Kelmscott Press. Previous efforts by Morris himself, Mr Daniel of Oxford, and others, count only as experiments towards a tasteful use of materials to hand. The great originality of the Kelmscott books lies, not merely in the order and design shown in their "build" and decoration, but in the vivifying of each part from type to paper by a high order of design and execution. Herein they differed in 1891 in all essentials, and in many new particulars, from all other modern books both in aim and aspect.
    The Kelmscott Press is distinguished by the use of three founts designed by William Morris. The Troye and Chaucer founts, both of them Gothic, named after books in which they first appeared, are best fitted for ornamental mediaeval works. These books owe their chief interest to the bold handsome decoration by Mr Morris, and to woodcuts after designs by Sir Edward Burne-Jones; one of the most noteworthy examples is the "Chaucer," of a page of which we are, by the special permission of William Morris's trustees, enabled to give a reduced facsimile (p. 307). In Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon we note the partial failure of this order of type to fit the character of a modern book. In the Golden or Roman fount lie the strength and future of the Kelmscott Press as an influence on type. The Golden Type is without the exaggerated contraction of form laterally, the exaggerated use of thick and thin strokes, or the vicious stroke-terminations common to modern founts. It is a type of full body, designed in careful relation to the up-and-down strokes, and resting upon solid serifs, as with Jenson, for instance, but in detail more allied to fine penmanship or even black letter. The character of the decoration in the Kelmscott pages is stamped with the vigour which one expects from a designer of Morris's importance. Usually on a black ground, the forms combine a northern character in thistle leaf and composite flower, with a fluency of curve comparable to the famous borders of Ratdolt of Venice.
    The Vale books, often classed by writers and collectors with the Kelmscott, may be counted with them so far as they also are singular in being controlled by one designer, from the important matter of type, decoration, and illustration, to that of "build" and press-work. The first Vale book in which each of these conditions was achieved is Milton's Minor Poems (1896). In this the Roman type, known as the Vale fount, designed by Charles Ricketts, differs from the Venetian and Kelmscott founts by a greater roundness or fulness of body, and in a modification of details by the conditions of type-making. The second fount used in the Vale issues, first employed in The Plays of Shakespeare (1896) [i.e. 1900], is less round in body, more traditional in detail, and lighter in effect. To be mentioned with the foregoing are some half-dozen books, printed by L. Pissarro in the Vale fount at his press, "The Eragny Press," with woodcuts decorations. They are unique in the revival of printing by the occasional use of colour and gold.
    No other books have hitherto combined the conditions specified of new type, woodcut decoration, original woodcuts, and personal control. Two American founts, adapted from Morris, are tentatively used by publishers. Mons. Grasset, in France, has designed an eclectic fount, but none of these can be associated with a special press or series of notable books. Recently, however, Messrs. Sanderson and Walker have recut Jenson's fount and established the Doves Press, conspicuous for its taste and technical excellence.
    A certain number of technical conditions had to be faced in the revival of printing for the first time in late years, i.e., the printing of woodcuts on hand-made paper, and the printing of borders and initials in the body of the text; both in pitch and in sustained evenness of tone the Kelmscott Press (notably in the Chaucer) remains unsurpassed. The inking-up process employed to achieve the above conditions is a very gradual one. The paper chosen for its regular thickness is, moreover, slightly damped, to avoid a gritty aspect in the blacks; hence the delicate embossed appearance of the pages, and the absence of all overloading with ink. In the manipulation of English or "Roman" vellum the consistency of the inks used is even greater, the vellum, of course, not being damped. The so-called "Roman" vellum is made at Brentford. The vellum used for the Kelmscott Chaucer was damped.
   Authorities. - Articles on the revival have appeared in the Athenaeum, the Saturday Review, Magazine of Art, The Studio, and the Contemporary Review. More detailed and more accurate information will be found in A Note by William Morris on his Aims in founding the Kelmscott Press. Kelmscott Press, 1898. - Floury. De la typographie et de l'harmonie de la page imprimée. Paris. - Hacon and Ricketts, A Defence of the Revival of Printing. - See also article, Morris, William. (C.Ri.)
[The New Volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica constituting in combination with the existing volume of the ninth edition The Tenth Edition of that work, and also supplying a new, distinctive, and independent Library of Reference dealing with recent events and developments. The second of the new volumes, being Volume XXVI of the complete work.(Edinburgh & London, 1902, page 306]

[The text is reprinted in Charles Ricketts, Everything for Art: Selected Writings. Edited with an introduction by Nicholas Frankel. High Wycombe, The Rivendale Press, 2014, pages 113-115].