# The English Bible, Containing the Old Testament and the New > T. J. Cobden-Sanderson and Sir Emery Walker, the Doves Press - 1903-1905 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/doves-press-cobden-sanderson-walker/doves-press-bible/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-23 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** T. J. Cobden-Sanderson and Sir Emery Walker, the Doves Press - **Date:** 1903-1905 - **Medium:** Letterpress in the Doves Type, a private roman type cut for the press, printed in red and black on handmade paper (two copies on vellum); initials designed and hand-lettered in red by Edward Johnston; bound in limp vellum by the Doves Bindery with gilt-lettered spines - **Dimensions:** 5 volumes, quarto. Exact leaf and type-page measurements were not found in the sources consulted for this record; see open questions. - **Object type:** Printed book - **Period:** British, Arts and Crafts movement, early twentieth century - **Current location:** Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Washington DC - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary Five plain, unillustrated quarto volumes, printed in red and black between 1903 and 1905 at the Doves Press in Hammersmith, and generally regarded as the masterpiece of the private press movement's most austere maker. The one ornament in the whole Bible, a single elongated red initial hand-lettered by Edward Johnston at the opening of Genesis, sits on a page otherwise built from nothing but type, ink and margin.The press's two founders, T. J. Cobden-Sanderson and Sir Emery Walker, fell out bitterly within a few years of finishing it. Rather than let a dissolution agreement hand the Doves Type to Walker on his own death, Cobden-Sanderson spent years secretly throwing the type, piece by piece, into the Thames from Hammersmith Bridge, an act he recorded in his own diary and that left the typeface unusable for nearly a century, until a graphic designer working from those same diary entries had part of it dredged back up from the riverbed in 2014.This particular copy is identified, on the Library of Congress's own authority, as part of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, now held in the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Its life before it reached that collection, who first owned it and when Rosenwald acquired it, is not documented in the sources this record could consult, and the record says so plainly rather than inventing a chain to fill the gap. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1903-1905** The Doves Press, Hammersmith `[documented]` (production) Printed and bound in five volumes between 1903 and 1905 by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson and Sir Emery Walker, in an edition of 500 sets on paper and 2 on vellum. - **1905** Unidentified original subscriber or purchaser `[unknown]` (gap) No first owner is documented for this specific copy in the sources consulted. Original subscribers to Doves Press books are recorded for some copies of the edition (a receipt to a 'Mr J. Guttridge' survives with one other set) but no such record for this copy has been located. - **undated** Lessing J. Rosenwald `[documented]` (acquisition) Entered the collection of Lessing J. Rosenwald (1891-1979), former chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company, as part of his roughly forty-year rare book collecting career. Exact acquisition date and source (dealer, sale, or private purchase) not stated in the sources consulted; the item is not identified in any auction record located for this research. - **1943-1980** Lessing J. Rosenwald, in physical custody at Alverthorpe Gallery, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, with title passing by gift to the Library of Congress `[documented]` (gift in progress) Rosenwald announced in 1943 that his entire graphic arts collection, and all future acquisitions, would go to the Library of Congress and the National Gallery of Art. He retained physical custody at his own Alverthorpe Gallery for the rest of his life; the collection reached the Library in a series of gifts from 1943, with final delivery in 1980, the year after his death in 1979. Which tranche included this Bible is not documented in the sources consulted. - **1980-present** Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division `[documented]` (institutional custody) Held as part of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, catalogued at loc.gov/item/49034965 and fully digitized under the accession stem rbc0001.2022rosen2243 across all five volumes. Exhibited in the Library's 'World Treasures: Beginnings' exhibition, whose caption is the basis for identifying this copy as the one reproduced in the Commons photograph anchoring this record. ## Open questions - Is the Library of Congress's copy one of the 500 paper sets or one of the 2 vellum sets? The sources consulted for this record do not say. - When and from whom did Lessing Rosenwald acquire this particular Bible, and in which of his gift tranches to the Library of Congress (1943-1980) did it travel? Not stated in the sources consulted. - Who was the first purchaser or subscriber to this specific set in 1903-1905, and where did it go between then and its entry into the Rosenwald collection? No owner is documented for that interval in the sources consulted. - Does this copy carry any bookplate, inscription, or binder's stamp beyond the standard Doves Bindery work? Not documented in the sources consulted. - Was the partnership dissolution finalized in 1908 or 1909? Secondary sources consulted give both years without reconciling the discrepancy. - What is the precise, word-for-word text of Cobden-Sanderson's diary entries describing the type's disposal? This record relies on secondary summaries and a widely repeated but not independently verified quotation ('bequeathed to the river' and the fuller sentence given in the artist dossier); the printed edition of the journals (A Journal of T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, published 1926) has not been consulted directly. - How many pieces of type were recovered by the Port of London Authority dive in November 2014: 147, 150, or 151? Sources consulted give all three figures. ## Sources - [1] Wikipedia, 'T. J. Cobden-Sanderson', for biography, marriage, partnership dissolution and the type's destruction. - [2] Wikipedia, 'Doves Press', for the press's founding, the Doves Type's design basis, the Bible's print dates, and the dissolution agreement's terms. - [3] Pitts Theology Library, Emory University, 'Pitts acquires the Doves Press Bible' (30 September 2024), for the Bible's reputation as the press's magnum opus and description of the Genesis initial. - [4] London Museum (Museum of London), 'The lost Doves Type: A Thames mystery solved', blog post on the type's destruction and its recovery and donation to the Emery Walker Trust. - [5] Macfilos, 'Death of a typeface: The secret of the Doves Press' (23 March 2018), for the feud's terms, the destruction narrative and total weight of metal destroyed, and Robert Green's recovery. - [6] Typespec (Robert Green), 'Recovering the Doves Type', first-person account of the October-November 2014 recovery, dates, personnel and piece counts. - [7] Library of Congress, 'World Treasures: Beginnings' exhibition, object page for the Doves Press Bible, identifying the exhibited copy as part of the Rosenwald Collection and naming Edward Johnston's role. Retrieved via search index; direct page load returned HTTP 403 to this record's research tools. Flagged for direct re-verification by a researcher able to load loc.gov exhibit pages. - [8] Library of Congress catalog record and digitized volumes for 'The English Bible: containing the Old Testament & the New' (Doves Press, 1903-1905), Rosenwald Collection, accession stem rosen2243. Catalog page also returned HTTP 403 to direct fetch; details drawn from search-index text and the live digitized-volume URLs, which resolved successfully. - [9] Bonhams, sale 30066, lot 112, Doves Press Bible with Templeton Crocker / Julia Scribner Bigham / L. W. Jordan Jr. provenance, sale 15-25 June 2024, hammer USD 9,000, USD 11,520 with premium. - [10] Ampersand Book Studio (Substack), 'Edward Johnston and the Especial Beauty of Headings', on Johnston's hand-lettered initials for the Doves Press including the Genesis I. - [11] Bonhams, earlier Doves Bible sale listing quoting Ransom's description of the Johnston initials as 'a pattern for all time of complexity reduced to the minimum of simplicity', and Cobden-Sanderson's journal note of satisfaction on seeing the finished Genesis opening. - [12] Library of Congress rare book record and secondary summaries of T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, 'The Ideal Book, or Book Beautiful' (Doves Press, February 1901), for the essay's publication details and its argument against Kelmscott Press design. - [13] Library of Congress, 'The Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection', Library of Congress Information Bulletin (October 2007) and 'About this Collection' page, for the 1943 gift announcement, Alverthorpe Gallery custody, and the 1980 final delivery after Rosenwald's 1979 death. - [14] Wikimedia Commons, file description and extmetadata for File:Doves Press Bible.jpg, confirming Public Domain licensing and the Library of Congress source URL. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.