8vo. (224 x 142 mm). Publisher’s original decorative rose cloth stamped with a stylised design of an industrial landscape with chimneys belching clouds of smoke into the atmosphere and soot descending from the same; 165, [1]pp.; very light tanning to the stock, else a very good copy.

First edition. Published just six years after the establishment of the Guild, while it was still based at Essex House in London and called the Guild and School of Handicraft. In the book Ashbee outlines his craft philosophy and explains how this applies to the work of the Guild. The book is dedicated to the memory of C.W. Atkinson, Guildsman and the first apprentice of the Guild of Handicraft who died on the 4th June 1894 at the age of 20.

Provenance: Annie Pearson, Viscountess Cowdray (1860-1932), with her decorative engraved bookplate to the front pastedown, initialled in print ‘W.P.B.’ and dated ‘1922’. As a member of the Women’s Liberal Federation, Annie Cowdray was an active campaigner for women’s suffrage.

Stock number: 1351