Footnotes

'THIS IS MY CLIMAX AND LAST. IT'S GOOD TO END UP WITH A BANG': T.E. LAWRENCE'S UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF APPRECIATION TO THE BINDER OF CHARLOTTE SHAW'S COPY OF SEVEN PILLARS.

It would appear that the "Mrs Shaw" referred to in our letter is Charlotte Shaw, wife of George Bernard Shaw, who was given two copies of the 1926 Seven Pillars, a complete 'subscribers' edition' (now in the New York Public Library), and a US edition which was split into two volumes to make it easier to handle. The custom design of her subscribers' copy, involving a blind-stamped double S and perfectly arranged symmetrical lozenges, would coincide with Lawrence's description here of an intricate rich and formal binding rather than a foliate decoration. The two volumes of her US edition are bound in unadorned brown morocco and, although also bound by McLeish, could therefore not be the bindings much praised by Lawrence.

The subscribers' edition of Seven Pillars, a limited edition run of about 200 copies, was an abridged version of the 1922 Oxford edition and published in late 1926. It was Lawrence's intention that every copy be unique in some way, hence the use of seven different binders, namely McLeish, Bumpus, Sangorski & Sutcliffe, Best, de Coverly, Wood and Harrison. Such was his appreciation of McLeish's work, however, as demonstrated here, that McLeish bound more copies than any other binder (estimates vary between 61 and 75) including those for George V, George Bernard Shaw and Lawrence's own copy.

The bindery of C. and C. McLeish of Swallow Street, Piccadilly, was run by Charles McLeish in partnership with his son, also Charles, from 1909-1949. First apprenticed in Edinburgh to Andrew Grieve, McLeish had worked for Riviere in London as a finisher and joined Cobden-Sanderson at the Doves Bindery in 1893. In 1909 he set up his own company with son Charles, who had apprenticed under Roger de Coverly, together with his son Peter and daughter who helped with sewing and book-keeping. Charles McLeish Senior was renowned for his expertise in applying intricate gilt decoration to create exquisite bindings, something which Lawrence praises in our letter. The unusual custom-made frame, in dark green morocco, is likely to be a product of the McLeish workshop.

Whilst Lawrence also comments here on how well the books are selling in the market, he himself lost money on the project, with each copy costing three times the thirty guineas paid by the subscribers. In the preface to the catalogue for the selling exhibition of the portraits commissioned for the book, George Bernard Shaw explains how Lawrence '...made up his mind to lose money... He set able painters to work to make portraits... and imaginative draughtsmen... He had paper specially made, and directed the printing himself in the manner of Morris or Caxton...' and urges people to purchase the pictures for 'extravagant sums' to benefit a Trust set up to firstly cover the costs of publication and thereafter benefit 'a fund for the relief of the Belisariuses of the Air Force. Not one farthing of the price of Arabia's independence and her timely aid to England will ever go into the pockets of the Prince of Damascus...' (Catalogue of an Exhibition of Paintings, Pastels, Drawings and Woodcuts illustrating Col. T.E. Lawrence's book "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", The Leicester Galleries, 5 to 21 February 1927). Our letter is not published in David Garnett (ed.), The Letters of T.E. Lawrence, 1938, neither are any other letters to McLeish.

Provenance: Charles McLeish (1859-1949); thence by descent to his great grandson, the present owner.