Ashendene Press Works from Sophie Schneideman Rare Books
- by Michael Stillman
The Ashendene Dante.
Next we come to Ashendene's masterpiece. Item 22 is TutteleOperediDanteAlighieri, better known simply as the AshendeneDante, published in 1909. It took three years to print the 111 copies of Hornby's finest work. It is generally considered one of the three greatest private press books ever printed, along with the KelmscottChaucer and the DovesBible. Emery Walker and Sidney Cockerell both described the book as the finest private press work other than the KelmscottChaucer, while Bruce Rogers described it as even finer than the Kelmscott work. £45,000 (US $70,495).
The final book from Ashendene would come in 1935. Hornby picked a logical subject: ADescriptiveBibliographyoftheBooksPrintedattheAshendenePress. This is more than just a dry bibliography, but one of Hornby's finest books. It includes not just the bibliography, but specimen leaves from most of the Ashendene books, either from the original printings or reset later ones. Item 37. £2,000 (US $3,133).
