Typography Tuesday
Here are some border and initial designs by the eccentric English artist, designer, and occultist Austin Osman Spare for the English writer and editor J. C. Squire’s collection of short tales, The Gold Tree, printed in 1917 at the Pelican Press for Marvin Secker in London in an edition of 500 copies signed by the author. The designs were engraved in wood by William Quick who was responsible for engraving most of Spare's designs.
Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956) was an English artist and ardent occultist who developed his own personal occult philosophy and wrote a series of grimoires. As an artist Spare was influenced by artists who worked in the Art Nouveau style, such as Charles Ricketts and Aubrey Beardsley, and in the 1920s he established two short-lived art magazines, one of which, The Golden Hind, we hold a full run (1921-1924). The magazine was co-edited with Clifford Bax and published by Chapman and Hall, and each issue was signed by the editors and included an original signed print by a different artist.
That’s a lot of signing, something of which The Gold Tree’s author J. C. Squire evidently was not a fan. In another copy of this book currently for sale on the rare book market, Squire added a comment to his signature, “I would rather write the book again than sign another 500 copies.”
View our posts on Austin Osman Spare’s The Golden Hind.
View more Typography Tuesday posts.
