GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS - T. E. Lawrence (1888-1935). Crusader Castles, London, 1936, 2 volumes, 4to, illustrations, 2 folding maps contained in envelope, original half morocco gilt by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. FIRST EDITION. NUMBER 135 OF 1,000 COPIES. (2)

GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS - Thomas Edward LAWRENCE [i.e. "Lawrence of Arabia"] (1888-1935).  Crusader Castles, edited by A. W. Lawrence. London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1936. 2 volumes, 4to (250 x 190mm). Titles printed in red, collotype portrait of the author with his four half brothers as a frontispiece to volume II, collotype illustrations, maps, plans and facsimiles after the author, many full-page, some printed in colours, 2 folding maps after H. Pirie-Gordon printed in red and black and contained in the original loosely-inserted envelope (small stain at the foot of the title page to the second volume, not affecting letters, some extremely faint marginal spotting and staining to a few leaves, envelope for the 2 folding maps lightly spotted but both the maps clean). Original russet half morocco and cream buckram by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, the spines lettered in gilt with five raised bands, with the publisher's cockerel motif stamped in gilt at the foot of each spine, top edges gilt, others uncut (some very light staining to the buckram). Provenance: The Collection of Leonard Messel, Nymans, Sussex. FIRST EDITION. NUMBER 135 OF 1,000 COPIES. The statements of limitation in each volume, on the verso of each title, read: "Printed and published in Great Britain by Christopher Sandford, Francis J. Newbery, and Owen Rutter at The Golden Cockerel Press, 10 Staple Inn, London, and completed on the [in vol. I:] 20th May [in vol. II:] 1st August 1936. The edition is limited to 1000 copies printed in Perpetua type on British mould-made paper." The number of this copy (135) appears at the end of the first volume statement. Volume I, which contains Lawrence's original thesis submitted at Jesus College, Oxford, in 1910, has a Foreword by A. W. Lawrence, his youngest brother and literary executor; volume II, which contains Lawrence's letters on military architecture written to his mother, has a Preface by her. It is interesting that A. W. Lawrence's Foreword concludes with a brief account of a minor fall-out with the press regarding the layout of the book: he writes, "In order to avoid loss of detail in the collotype reproductions through loss of scale, I have arranged that some of the larger plates should be turned on their sides, and other departures made from Golden Cockerel concepts of book-production. The Press wishes it to be appreciated that it does not advocate this treatment, and has agreed to issue the book in this way only with reluctance. A. W. L." Found in the book was a fragment of an obscure undated newspaper article, pasted onto a piece of card, which was probably used by a previous reader as a marker. It is difficult to see the article's relevance, until one remembers that Lawrence was a keen motorcyclist and was killed in a motorbike accident near his home in Clouds Hill, Dorset, in 1935, a year and a day before the publication of Crusader Castles. The article reads: "The special allowance of petrol granted for men on leave can now, where the man himself is not the registered owner of a vehicle, be claimed for a car or motor-cycle registered in the name of his wife." Chanticleer [Bibliography of The Golden Cockerel Press, 1921-36] 112; Clements T. E. Lawrence. A Reader's Guide pp.27-28; O'Brien T. E. Lawrence: A Bibliography A188-189: "The first of The Golden Cockerel volumes of Lawrence's 'literary remains' to be published after his death." (2)