[TYNDALE, William ( translator ).] The Newe Testament. Four Gospels.

[TYNDALE, William (translator).] The Newe Testament. Four Gospels. Lexington, KY: Anvil Press. 1955.

Four vols, small 8vo. Original light blue paper-covered boards, paper labels to spines; unpaginated, each volume with double-page woodcut from the Holkham Bible as a frontispiece, printed in red and black in American Uncial type; very slight sunning to spines, uncut, near fine.

Limited edition, one of 300 copies.

This set of Gospels, using Tyndale's translation, was designed by Victor Hammer, the Austrian-born typographer and artist, and was printed by his son Jacob. Hammer, responsible for the creation of several famous Uncial fonts such as that used here, settled in the US after fleeing the Nazis in 1938 having trained young craftsmen such as Fritz Kredel and Rudolph Koch. He continued to teach in Kentucky and set up the Anvil Press with his second wife Carolyn Reading, herself a printer. The Press was a co-operative that used a number of different presses and sold its productions at cost.

The Four Gospels is considered to be its finest work and representative of Hammer's high standards: "The books designed or printed by Hammer, regardless of the imprint under which they were published, had a unity rare indeed in private printing: Absolutely uncompromising in design and execution, they represented admirably the superb instrument a private press can be in the hands of an individual intent on perfection, or in the hands of his followers" (Roderick Cave, The Private Press, 1971, p. 263).

SKU: 2123905