In 1938 the Golden Cockerel Press, a private press in rural England which made handmade limited editions of classic works which were hand-set and the books printed on handmade paper, produced a volume of poetry titled A Lover’s Progress. Unlike many Golden Cockerel titles, which were known for the quality of their illustrations, this collection of erotic seventeenth century lyrics by John Donne, Robert Herrick, John Dryden and others, was not illustrated, which was a pity because the poems, chosen by Nancy Quennell, are some of the most graphic verses in the English language.

Here for example is Robert Herrick’s ‘To Dianeme’:

     Shew me thy feet, shew me thy legs, thy thighs;
     Shew me those fleshly principalities;
     Shew me that hill, where smiling love doth sit,
     Having a living fountain under it;
     Shew me thy waist; then let me there withal
     By the assention of thy lawn, see all.

Fortunately, however, in 1940 one of the 215 limited edition copies, number 150, was given to John Buckland Wright, well known to the press’s co-owner Christopher Sandford, to add hand-drawn pencil illustrations for one of their (few) wealthy clients. Buckland Wright rose to the occasion, producing fifty drawings to fill all the available spaces in the book – two full-page, 21 half- or three-quarter page, and 27 vignettes and tailpieces.

Even more fortunately, this extra-illustrated copy changed hands in the early 1990s, at which point the drawings were copied and recorded before the book disappeared again into a private collection.

We are very grateful to Lesley Tyson for sharing this portfolio.