Prydain Chronicles – Signed – Lloyd Alexander – Bauman Rare Books

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    “Lloyd Alexander ranks as one of the best writers of high fantasy to emerge since Tolkien, and his five novels comprising the Chronicles of Prydain are true classics of the genre” (Tymn, Fantasy Literature, 40-3). The Black Cauldron was named a Newbery Honor Book; The High King won the Newbery Medal. Disney adapted the first two volumes into the animated film The Black Cauldron (1985)—the first Disney film to receive a PG rating. The Black Cauldron and The High King dust jackets without mention of the Newbery awards.

    First editions of Lloyd Alexander’s Newbery-winning Prydain Chronicles, the first two titles—by far the scarcest—each signed by Alexander. A lovely, complete set, in the Evaline Ness-designed dust jackets, in fine condition.

    ALEXANDER, Lloyd. The Prydain Chronicles: The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, The High King. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964-68. Together, five volumes. Octavo, original boards, original dust jackets.

    “TRUE CLASSICS OF THE GENRE”: LLOYD ALEXANDER’S BELOVED PRYDAIN CHRONICLES, FINE FIRST EDITIONS OF ALL FIVE VOLUMES, THE FIRST TWO BOOKS SIGNED BY ALEXANDER: THE BOOK OF THREE AND THE BLACK CAULDRON

  • Aquatint

    Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.

  • Armorial

    Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.

  • Association Copy

    copy that belonged to someone connected with the author or the contents of a book.

  • Boards

    Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.

  • Book-Plate

    Label, generally affixed to the front pastedown, identifying a book’s owner.

  • Broadside

    Sheet printed on one side, typically for public display, usually larger than folio size (a folio being a broadside-size sheet printed on both sides and folded once, to make four pages).

  • Calf

    Binding material made from cowhide—versatile, durable, usually tan or brown in color, of smooth texture with no or little apparent grain. Readily marbled (“tree calf”), mottled, diced, colored, polished, tooled in gilt or blind, even scented (known as “russia”). Reverse calf, with a distinctive suede-like texture, is occasionally used.

  • Chromolithograph

    Lithograph printed in colors, typically three or more.

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    Process by which the contents of a book are inspected for completeness, checking against internal evidence, the table of contents and/or plate list, and reference works. Also a shorthand bibliographical description of a book’s composition by its leaves and signatures, rather than its pages. A-C, for example, would indicate a quarto volume composed of three signatures or gatherings of eight pages each for a total of 24 pages.

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    Printed note at the end of a text containing information about the printing of the book.

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    Pastedowns made not of paper but of leather, for decorative purposes.

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    (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.

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    Print-run from a single setting of type without substantial change. Depending on demand, any number of printings can be made from a setting of type For example, a first printing might consist of 1000 copies, followed by a second printing of 2500 copies; in which case the book would have a first edition, first printing of 1000 copies, and a first edition, second printing of 2500 copies.

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    Extra leaves—plain, colored or decorated—with which a bookbinder covers the insides of the book’s boards, therefore not part of the actual text block. The part of the leaf pasted to the inside of the front board is the front “pastedown,” while the other part of the leaf that forms the first page of the book is the “front free endpaper”; the same applies to the rear pastedown and rear free endpaper.

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    Illustration produced by carving lines into a metal plate. This is an intaglio process, in which ink is poured over the plate, then wiped from the surface, leaving ink only in the recesses made by the engraver’s tools. The image is then transferred by pressing thick dampened paper against the metal plate with great force—requiring engravings to be printed on a separate stock and separate press from any text.

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    List of mistakes and corrections noted after printing, often compiled on a separate sheet or slip and inserted into the text block.

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    Additional blank leaves following or preceding the endpapers.

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    Book composed of sheets that are folded once and printed on both sides, making two leaves and four pages. Typically above 14 inches tall. Oblong folios are produced the same way but bound at the short edge, producing a book typically more than 14 inches deep.

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    Edge of the book furthest from the spine. Occasionally the text of a book will be put into a specialized book press and painted, often with a scene from the book or a landscape, so that the painting is invisible when the book is closed but visible when somebody bends the text and fans the pages—known as a fore-edge painting.

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    Light brown spots that naturally appear on some papers due to oxidation as they age.

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    The three exposed edges of a book have been smoothed and gilded.

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    Leaf preceding the title page that bears the book’s title, originally used to identify the unbound text block. The book’s binder would often remove and discard the half title at the time of binding. Remaining half-titles are therefore of interest to collectors.

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    Decorated by hand. Typically early printed books and especially manuscripts.

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    Satement of place, publisher and date of publication on a book’s title page.

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    From the cradle of printing, i.e., any book printed before 1501.

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    A group of books issued by the publisher as a discrete unit. At times, issue refers to timing, such as the “first issue” being offered to the public at an earlier date than the “second issue.” At other times, it refers to specially planned different batches, such as the “trade issue” (widely available) in opposition to a “signed limited issue” (limited to a small amount of copies differing somehow from the trade issue and not widely available).

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    Expensive handmade paper often used in deluxe editions.

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    Illustration produced by transferring an image drawn on a carefully prepared stone to paper. The process allowed illustrations to more closely resemble the original drawings, paintings or sketches, as it gave the lithographer a freedom of line impossible to achieve in earlier intaglio and relief processes. It does not require the same sort of pressure as an engraving to transfer the image, but still has to be printed on separate stock from the text

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    Handwritten notes made in the margins by a previous owner.

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    Printer’s error in pagination, typically skipping, transposing or repeating page numbers. Not uncommon in older, larger books, it is not considered a defect, so long as all integral leaves are present.

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    Recently accomplished, when used to describe a book’s binding that is not the original casing. Some books bound recently are bound using techniques, tools and styles of the period of the book’s original issue; when done well this is called a period-style binding, a term that implies “modern” as well.

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    Binding material made from goatskin—versatile, durable, with a distinctive pebbled texture and visible grain. Readily stretched (“straight-grain”), crushed (flattened smooth), tooled in gilt or blind, inlaid with leathers of different colors. So-called because much of the raw material originally came from the tanneries of North Africa (other types of goatskin bindings denoting regions of origin include levant, turkey, niger).

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    binding executed with materials, tools and techniques to approximate the look of a contemporary binding from the period of the book’s publication. The term implies that the binding is modern, or recent, unless otherwise specified.

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    Variation in text, illustration, design or format that allows a bibliographer to distinguish between different editions and different printings of the same edition, or between different states or issues of the same printing.

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    Printing or printings of a book made available for purchase by the general public on publication day (as opposed to a limited edition, often available only by subscription).

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    When the folds of the sheets of paper making up the text block have not been trimmed away or opened with a paper-knife. While this makes it impossible to read all of the pages, it also indicates a probability that the text block has not been altered since leaving the printer.

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    Binding material made from specially treated calfskin—durable, with a distinctive ivory color and smooth appearance. Can be tooled in gilt or blind. So-called Japan vellum (or Japon) is a type of thick paper that has been polished smooth and given a glossy finish to resemble vellum.

  • Verso

    The back or reverse side of a leaf or page. (See “recto.”)

  • Woodcut

    Illustration or textual decoration made by cutting away from the surface of a block of wood until the reverse of the image is left in relief; this is then inked and pressed to the paper to leave the image. The woodblock, or multiple blocks, can be fit into the page along with the type, allowing text and illustrations to be printed in the same print run and share the same page (not possible with engravings, which require thicker, damp paper and much more force; nor with lithographs, which require a different printing process altogether). Woodcuts preceded moveable type and are the earliest known printing technology.

  • Wood-Engraving

    Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.

  • Wormhole

    Tiny pinhole-sized trails left by bookworms as they eat through a text block. Much more common in older books printed on handmade papers with a high rag content than in books printed on manufactured papers made from wood pulp with a higher acidic content.

  • Wrappers

    Paper coverings—plain, marbled or printed—attached by stitches, staples or glue to a text block to identify it and afford it some protection (though much more fragile than a binding in plain, cloth or leather-covered boards). More typical of slim and/or inexpensive volumes such as pamphlets. “Self wrappers” are leaves, blank or printed, that are integral to the text block, conjugate with other leaves and from the same stock. “Original wrappers,” those attached at the time of issue, are scarce and extremely desirable to most collectors.