GREGYNOG PRESS - John Milton (1608-74). Four Poems. L' Allegro. Il Penseroso. Arcades. Lycidas, Newtown, 1933, large 8vo, wood-engraved illustrations by Blair Hughes-Stanton, printed on Japanese vellum, original calf. NUMBER 137 OF 250 COPIES. Harrop 26.

GREGYNOG PRESS - John Milton (1608-74).  Four Poems ... L' Allegro. Il Penseroso. Arcades. Lycidas, edited by H. C. Beeching. Newtown: The Gregynog Press, 1933. Large 8vo (258 x 170mm). Wood-engraved illustrations by Blair Hughes-Stanton, printed on Japanese vellum, the text hand-set in Gill Perpetua Type by John Hugh Jones and Idwal Jones. Original red reverse calf with the illustration of Euphrosyne taken from the title page stamped on the upper cover above the stamped monogram "G.G." ([?]"Gwasg Gregynog"), uncut (some light fading, light stains to the head and foot of spine). NUMBER 137 OF 250 COPIES. "Blair Hughes-Stanton ... was working at the Gregynog Press in Montgomeryshire between 1931-4. Here he illustrated six books with wood engravings of a delicacy and fineness of line that was quite new to the craft - a delicacy that also made very considerable demands on his pressmen. I suppose that Hughes-Stanton and Gill were the best craftsmen in this English wood engraving revival, though Gill never attempted the intricacies that Hughes-Stanton took in his stride. The fineness of the latter's white line engravings has to be seen in the original, where they are printed on a smooth, cream-coloured Japanese vellum, with impeccable presswork, most sparely inked" (John Lewis, The 20th Century Book (1967, reprinted 1984), p.166). Harrop A History of the Gregynog Press 26.