Ormsby/Ricart Don Quixote

This post is about the 1933 Limited Editions Club set, which I recently picked up in near fine condition for a deal, mostly due to missing slipcase I suspect.

Brief preface: the seller shipped the books (quite well packed, I will add) in a "Crayola Multicultural Crayons" box, which prompted a quirky look from the staff in my building. When the fellow assisting me picked it up, he noted that it was surprisingly heavy, and indeed the volumes feel heavier than I would expect, even given the large size. It must be something about the paper (noted as "Guarro"); the set gives an overall feeling of solidity or density greater than perhaps any other books I own.

I have had my eye on this one for a while, as it is the Ormsby translation, and is printed single column, unlike the later, often more affordable 1950 LEC printing, which is printed in two columns.

This is a book which I think benefits from being divided into several volumes, and not only because it has substantial length, but also because the two parts were written as separate works, published 10 years apart in the original Spanish. Book two is in some ways a more complex work (it assumes that characters within have read the first part!) and so it feels fitting to have them printed as physically separate objects.

There is a long thread on the Macy board comparing the two LEC editions. In this thread, Django writes that the 1933 edition (this set) might use some of the finest paper of any LEC publication. I don't know whether that opinion stands, and I certainly haven't examined enough LEC books to have an educated opinion myself, but I can say without reservation that I am highly pleased with the paper. The print quality is also remarkable, not just the type but the deepness of the blacks in the illustration prints as well. It was printed in Barcelona by Oliva de Vilanova.

I know board members can probably easily find pictures of this edition by searching the web, but here are a few of this particular copy.

(You should be able to click these images to access higher-resolution photos. Please let me know if there are any issues with this, as I am trying out a different way to host the high-res photos.)

>1 abysswalker: Its a very nice looking set. How did the spines hold up? Fading or darkening? That's the typical issue with most copies of this remarkable set.

>1 abysswalker:

I think Confessions of an English Opium Eater might rival this. Hard to beat Kelmscott handmade paper.

I do want this edition though, but the fact that I already own the later LEC Don Quixote keeps me from pulling the trigger.

>2 Sport1963: If I look closely in good light, I can see a bit of fading (comparing the buckram on the outward facing spine to the buckram attached to the boards), and I suspect in comparison with the original color it would be clearly less vibrant, but alone the effect is not dissatisfying. Graceful aging.

In my opinion, this is an amazing set! I think that the translation and, especially, detailed extensive notes and commentaries are superior to widely-celebrated Grossman edition - I have compared both, and, overall, this 1933 set is an unbelievable deal, especially in comparison to the Arion Press edition.
If the spines on the LEC set are badly faded, one can rebound the spines in a fine leather and have a gorgeous set with a good translation and commentaries (and don't forget wonderful and meaningful illustrations) still for a very reasonable price.
Editing the post to add that both volumes in this set are signed by the artist - another very uncommon and appealing feature!

Nice images! The handmade paper for the 1933 Don Quixote is stunning and definitely adds heft to this set. This is true for almost all handmade papers, except some of those extremely thin but incredibly durable kozo papers from Japan (which most people would never dream to print an entire book on, although some use kozo for illustrations).

One of the heaviest books in my collection is the Book of Common Prayer (1928), which, granted, is a large folio, but the handmade paper makes it useful as a defense mechanism against intruders. Even out of the binding, which is basically the current state of my copy, it's an incredibly substantial volume because of the paper.

Handmade papers are one of the primary reasons I like the work of John Mason, the Allen Press, and most of the earlier books from Bird and Bull. There's really nothing quite like good letterpress on those kinds of handmade papers. I suppose it's primarily the tactile quality, but you can also see the difference in some of their papers.

OT: I know the paper information is available in the LEC Quarto-Millenary and the Bibliography, but it would be fun to hear about people's favorite paper from an LEC. I'm not sure what mine is, but the 1933 Don Quixote Quarro paper is up there. Maybe this would be a topic for the George Macy forum.

The gigantic set is hand-set, which can be of further interested to members of this group.

I would also contribute to the discussion the paper used for The Iliad and The Odyssey. It was specially made for those publications, and are all watermarked, matched with hand-set type.

>6 DenimDan:
>8 U_238:
In addition to the 1933 DQ and 1931 Homer, I would note these LECs for exceptional paper:
Aesop's Fables (1933) which has FJ Head paper (same source as Barcham Green/Hayle Mill)
The Prince (1954) on Della Robbia paper
The Secret Sharer (1985) on Enrico Magnani paper
Song of Roland (1938) on Pannekoek Marken paper (watermarked "P. & Co. Heelsum Holland")

>1 abysswalker:
I haven't read my copy yet, but I'm looking forward to it -- maybe in the coming year.

>5 booksforreading:
Count me among those who failed to connect with the Grossman translation.

In company:



I recall coming across a picture, on a board member's profile here, of a nice rebinding job by Don Floyd of the same set. I will see if I can locate it again.

Ah, here, it was SDB2012. Some selections (these are not my pictures):







(Link to the first relevant entry in the gallery in case you want to click through all of them.)

Now that I look at these images again, I wonder about the trimming, as my copy only has the top edge evenly trimmed, and I kind of like the deckle edges. In any case, a beautiful job.

>12 abysswalker: Don hated deckled edges as they're often dirt magnets so he had the text blocks trimmed before rebinding. Personally, I like deckled edges; though, I do like this rebinding job.

>9 kermaier:

Nice! I was going to mention The Prince, but couldn't remember how to spell 'Della Robbia'...lol. A very underrated volume, I guess b/c the Heritage edition has the same binding.

>11 abysswalker:
Is your copy of The Prince bound in reddish-brown leather? I have two copies, both in black.

>15 kermaier: yes, brown leather. Number 240.

>15 kermaier: This seems to be one of the few Limited Editions Club books with two different binding variants.



The Quarto-Millenary only described the brown variant, and I think the Bibliography does not mention different binding colors, either.

>17 teppi2: An aside on binding variants - there are variants for several of the LEC "American Poets" series. I have a Whittier bound in burnt orange, not black. I'll start a separate thread polling readers about the variants they have come across in this series.

>16 abysswalker:
>17 teppi2:

I also have the brown leather Prince.

Descent of Man also has at least 3 color variations.

>19 MobyRichard: With Descent I am not certain if all of those are truly different variants or if at least one of them is caused by leather discoloration.

I have seen three different colors listed: green, brown and black. However, I think the brown color could just be faded green. Below is my reasoning for this suspicion:





Above are pictures of the green and the brown version of this book. The brown variant came without the glassine wrap while the green one came with it. The green copy is starting to fade to brown at the top and bottom of the spine, where some light could pass the glassine. Green to brown discoloration is quite common to my understanding, and the Bibliography mentions only green leather.

However, the leather color on the brown copy is very even, with no change at the sides where it should have been protected from light by the slipcase. Thus, I cannot be sure about my conclusion.

>20 teppi2:

You may be right, but my copy has more of a yellow-tan spine. The brown version in your picture may well be from sunning or a 4th variant?

>13 kdweber: What's the problem with deckled edges if the book sits in a slipcase?

>22 filox: Nothing, I'm just commenting on Don's view. He liked to buy cheap copies with bindings in poor condition but perfect text blocks. Such copies usually were missing slipcases and thus more likely to have soiled deckle edges.

>20 teppi2: To my mind, the brown binding is not the result of fading, but the intended color. Usually, when a green binding fades from sunlight, it is the spine that goes with only a little to the edge of the boards near the spine.

>24 Glacierman: You are probably right. I just looked at Abebooks again, and there seem to be even more varieties. In addition to the black, green, yellow-tan and medium brown variety, there also appears to be a grey one (current listed by Royoung Bookseller on Abebooks). In all images posted by booksellers, the color of the leather on the boards is identical to the color on the spine (except sometimes a bit of fading on the top and bottom, in line with my green copy above).

>23 kdweber: Don had very good taste, both in this case and for the LEC Utopia, whose binding is beautiful but more often than not quite grubby. Nevertheless, I like deckled edges and will always keep them on rebinds.