1903 - 1905, vii pp + 10 parts: Part 1: 'Songs of Praise', 40pp; Part 2: 'Songs of the Sea', 24pp: Part 3: 'Songs of Loyalty and the Love of the Land', 44pp; Part 4: 'Rounds and Catches', 32pp; Part 5: 'Songs of the Country and the Tilling of the Soil', 52pp; Part 6: 'Songs of Sport', 28pp; Part 7: 'Songs of the Tavern and the Vine', 20pp; Part 8 'Workshop Songs or Songs of the Crafts', 24pp; Part 9: 'Songs of Comradeship, Love, & Courtship', 76pp; Part 10: 'Miscellany of Song', 60pp; each with title page + 'Index of the Essex House Song Book', xxivpp; uncut, paper covered boards, vellum spine with gilt titles, slip case. In a limited edition of 200 copies, this one numbered 156. In very good condition, the page edges dusty, the end papers tanned, the boards rubbed and a little marked, as is the vellum spine. The slip case is a little faded and one corner has split for 3" or so. Charles Robert Ashbee (1863 - 1942) was an architect & designer and one of the leading exponents of the Arts & Crafts movement. He established the Guild and School of Handicraft in London in 1888 which he moved to Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire in 1902. The Essex House Press was part of the Guild and was set up when Ashbee acquired the printing presses of William Morris's Kelmscott Press after his death in 1896. Within 5 years, however, the oversupply of handmade furniture and jewellery to a limited local market led to the demise of the Guild and the Essex House Press in 1907. Ashbee's wife, Janet, survived him and died in 1961