Mairet (Ethel).- Pepler (H.D.C.) The Hand Press, number 198 of 250 copies signed by the author, original cloth with wrap-around pasted down paper label, uncut, spine a little faded, [Taylor A233], Ditchling, St. Dominic's Press, 1934 § Shelley (P.B.) Prometheus Unbound, out-of-series copy from an edition limited to 200 on paper, frontispiece by C.R.Ashbee, printed in red and black, original boards, uncut, lacking spine, Campden, Essex House, 1904 § Ashbee (C.R.) Echoes from the City of the Sun, out-of-series copy from an edition limited to 250, presentation copy from the author to Ananda Coomaraswamy inscribed "To Shree Coomaraswamy from C.R.A." on front free endpaper, original boards, uncut, Campden, Essex House Press, 1905 § Sirelius (U.T.) The Ryijy-Rugs of Finland, Ethel Mairet's copy with her signature on front free endpaper, colour plates with captioned tissue guards, illustrations, original buckram, a few stains to upper cover, Helskinki, 1926; and a small bundle of others, mostly postcards addressed to Ethel Mairet including one each from the potters Bernard Leach (with sketch) and Shoji Hamada, v.s. (sm.qty)

⁂ Ethel Mairet (1872-1952) was a hand-loom weaver who greatly influenced the development of the craft in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. She was first married to the art historian Ananda Coomaraswamy, author of works on the art of India and Ceylon, and together they became part of the craft community established by C.R.Ashbee (founder of the Essex House Press) at Chipping Campden, and where she first learnt to weave. She later married Coomaraswamy's secretary, Philip Mairet, and they moved to 'Gospels' in Ditchling, becoming part of the artistic group led by Eric Gill & Douglas Pepler. Her work A Book on Vegetable Dyes had been the first work published by Pepler at the Hampshire House Workshops in 1918 (Taylor A1) and her studio at 'Gospels' became a centre for hand-loom weaving, drawing visitors from all over the world including Mahatma Gandhi and the potters Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada. The latter described her as "the mother of English hand-weaving" and his postcard to her is from Ryuku in Japan which he says is "..famous for producing pots & good 'kaswri' a special sort of cotton cloth with woven white patterns in indigo colour...". The postcard from Leach is from Korea and includes a small sketch with the description below "...hills behind like this...".