The Golden Cockerel "Bountiana": Complete set of 6 volumes in 2 slipcases (Limited editions, custom-bound and signed)

RUTTER, Owen (ed.); BLIGH, William; MORRISON, James; FRYER, John (with FRYER, Mary Ann) (illus. Robert Gibbings, Lynton Lamb, Peter Barker-Mill & Averil Mackenzie-Grieve). The Golden Cockerel "Bountiana": A Complete Set of Six Volumes. London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1934–1939. 6 vols. in 5 (Vol. III comprising 2 vols.), housed in 2 slipcases.

A complete assembly of the Golden Cockerel "Bountiana" series, entirely and distinctively rebound as a unified library.

Royal Quarto. All six volumes uniformly rebound in full deep green crushed Morocco, with the two slipcases bound in matching leather to the head and tails and vellum panels to the sides. Covers of each volume and each slipcase individually embossed in a unique design on a nautical theme, corresponding to the contents of each book. Titles to spine raised and blocked in blind. Rear cover of each volume with embossed anchor device. Original publisher's spine strip from each volume preserved and mounted to the rear face of the corresponding slipcase, allowing the set to be displayed with either the rebound spines or the original Golden Cockerel "sail-type" cloth spines facing outward. Bookplate of Milton Whitmont to each volume. Binder unrecorded; no binder's stamp present.

Few episodes in British maritime history have generated as sustained and as various a literature as the mutiny on His Majesty's Armed Vessel Bounty on 28 April 1789. Between 1934 and 1939, the historian Owen Rutter (1889–1944) assembled and edited what remains the single most important primary-source publishing programme ever devoted to the subject: six volumes, drawn wherever possible from original manuscript sources rather than the secondary and often unreliable popular accounts that had accumulated around the story since the 1790s. Rutter's sources included Bligh's own Admiralty despatch and ship's log, held in the National Archives; James Morrison's manuscript journal, held in the Mitchell Library of New South Wales, offering one of the very few surviving first-hand mutineer perspectives on events; and previously unpublished family papers relating to John Fryer, the Bounty's sailing master, obtained by Rutter directly from Fryer's own daughter.

Taken together, the six volumes present the Bounty story from every principal vantage point available to a documentary historian: Bligh's own official and unofficial accounts of the open-boat voyage and its long aftermath; the log of the ship itself, recovered from Admiralty records and never previously published; the perspective of a mutineer who remained in the Pacific; and the private family memory of the officer whose relationship with Bligh was, by every account, the most fraught of any aboard. Each volume was illustrated by a different Golden Cockerel wood engraver: Robert Gibbings, Lynton Lamb, Peter Barker-Mill, and Averil Mackenzie-Grieve, giving the series a visual variety within a consistent scholarly and production framework, and each was issued, as was Golden Cockerel practice, in small numbered editions of between 300 and 350 copies, on fine paper, in the press's characteristic two-tone "sail-type" cloth bindings.

This set has been removed entirely from its original bindings and rebound as a single, coherent library object: full deep green crushed Morocco throughout, each cover and each slipcase individually embossed with a unique nautical device corresponding to its specific contents, spines lettered in raised blind titling, and each volume's rear cover featuring a depressed vignette of an anchor. The considered and highly unusual decision to preserve each volume's original spine and mount them to the interior rear face of the slipcases allows the set to be displayed in either its rebound state or its original Golden Cockerel state. No binder's stamp survives to identify the hand responsible for this exceptional work, though the uniformity, ambition, and thematic coherence of the commission — combined with the presence of Milton Whitmont's bookplate in every volume — strongly suggest a bespoke binding undertaken for a dedicated private collector rather than a commercial trade rebinding.

Comprising:

Slipcase I:

1. The Voyage of the Bounty's Launch, as Related in William Bligh's Despatch to the Admiralty and the Journal of John Fryer. 1934. 86 pp. Wood engravings by Robert Gibbings. Number 9 of 300 copies on Arnold all-rag paper. First volume of the series; the original binding established the two-tone "sail-type" cloth pattern followed throughout.

2. The Journal of James Morrison, Boatswain's Mate of the Bounty, Describing the Mutiny & Subsequent Misfortunes of the Mutineers, Together with an Account of the Island of Tahiti. 1935. 244 pp. Five wood engravings by Robert Gibbings. Number 152 of 325 copies (310 for sale) on Van Gelder paper, printed directly from the manuscript in the Mitchell Library of New South Wales.

3. John Fryer of the Bounty: Notes on His Career Written by His Daughter Mary Ann. 1939. 54 pp. Wood engravings by Averil Mackenzie-Grieve. Number 34 of 300 copies on Arnold's hand-made paper. Signed by the editor, Owen Rutter, and the artist, Averil Mackenzie-Grieve. The final volume in the series.

Slipcase II:

4–5. The Log of the Bounty. 2 vols. 1937. 435 and 258, [1] pp. Illustrations by Lynton Lamb. The first publication from the original Admiralty manuscript records of Bligh's ship's log, with commentary on Bligh's navigation by Rear-Admiral J. A. Edgell. Number 193 of 300 sets.
6. Bligh's Voyage in the Resource: From Coupang to Batavia, Together with the Log of His Subsequent Passage to England in the Dutch Packet Vlydt and His Remarks on Morrison's Journal. 1937. Wood engravings by Peter Barker-Mill. Number 93 of 350 copies. A direct sequel to The Log of the Bounty, including Bligh's own annotated response to Morrison's journal.

Very good overall. Bindings sound, tight, and square throughout all six volumes; leather remains in near-perfect condition. Slipcases show some minor cosmetic shelf wear only, entirely commensurate with the age of the set. Contents show scattered foxing, mostly confined to the preliminary and end matter of each volume, together with mild toning to the edges of each text block; text and illustrations throughout are largely unaffected by these issues. A handsome and well-preserved set.

Please note: This is a substantial six-volume set housed in two slipcases, and is heavy. Additional postage costs will apply. Please contact us for a shipping quote before purchase.

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Catalogue Number: HH000669