Doves Books. From the Press & Bindery of T.J. Cobden-Sanderson with Memorabilia of the Man Assembled by Mrs. George M. Millard at the Little Museum of La Miniatura in Pasadena.
[South Pasadena, California: Ward Ritchie]. 1933. First edition, second issue, of a scarce item, printed by Ward Ritchie for Alice Millard for her exhibition of Doves Press books. The two issues, according to the Ritchie checklist, consisted of one of 125 copies, with a later reprint of 50 copies (as per The Ward Ritchie Press and Anderson, Ritchie, & Simon, p. 70). The first issue is 9 3/16 x 5 13/16," that is a bit smaller than the present issue. It is printed on machine-made wove paper and bound in blue or gray wrappers. According to the checklist, this second issue consisted of fifty copies. The handmade laid paper of the second issue is a more expensive variety than that used in the first issue. In the first issue, the colophon bears the statement, “125 copies printed by Ward Ritchie. South Pasadena, California. March 11, 1933." In the present issue, the colophon simply says: Printed by Ward Ritchie, South Pasadena, Calif.”. Doves Press device in red on title-page and large red decorative initial on page 5. Text throughout mostly in black with red section headings. Printed on handmade laid paper. Wrappers lightly toned at spine and around the edges. and some offsetting from title-page on inside of wrappers. Edges untrimmed. A little light dampstaining at the bottom edge of the last dozen pages, a little light foxing at fore-edge. A very good copy of a fragile early Ward Ritchie printing. Cream-colored wrappers, printed with the phrase “Order Touched with Delight” in red. Octavo, 9 x 6 .”. 60 pp. Item #17990
Ward Ritchie (1905-1996) was a very young man when he printed this, and the place of publication is in South Pasadena, where Ritchie's childhood home was located. It would not be long before his publications would bear the place name of Los Angeles instead. He has noted in several places that he finished printing this catalogue during the March 10, 1933 Long Beach earthquake. The opening of Alice Millard's exhibition was the next day, March 11, and he delivered the catalogues just hours before it started. According to Ritchie, she found some problems with the printing of the catalogue and asked him to produce a second issue.
Though we have handled both issues multiple times, we have not had the opportunity to compare the two issues side by side, but Michele Cloonan, author of the new biography of Alice Millard, did compare them, together with her husband, bibliographer Sid Berger, and they have noted that there were changes between the two editions, including cleaning up some weak impressions of the type, and in one case, correcting a typographical error by changing a period to a comma.
.....Alice Parsons Millard (1873-1938) was known widely during her lifetime as a bookseller and a friend of other bibliophiles like Ward Ritchie and William Andrews Clark, as well as an important advisor to collectors like Clark, Henry Huntington, Estelle Doheny. Caroline Poole and Templeton Crocker. She was also known for commissioning Frank Lloyd Wright to build her home, La Miniatura, in Pasadena. For a full discussion of Millard’s life and career, see the new biography of her by Michèle Cloonan, Becoming Alice Millard: Bookseller and Tastemaker (Bloomsbury. 2026).
Price: $600.00