Quarto. 30, (5)pp. One of 80 copies, printed by Will Carter at the Rampant Lions Press on Barcham Green handmade paper, watermarked "Clover Hill." Illustrated with ten wood engravings by David Jones, this title is considered by many to be the artist's most important work. According to Hodnett in Five Centuries of Book Illustration, it was with The Chester Play of the Deluge, first published by the Golden Cockerel Press in 1927, that Jones reached his full artistic maturity. Its ten wood engravings "are as original a series of illustrations as any in an English book," Hodnett observes. "Jones's innovation was to integrate the elements of each design in a complex overall pattern by means of interlocking bands of solid black or white." In terms of how these engravings were printed in the Golden Cockerel edition, however, Jones felt that the some of the delicacy of his wood engravings had been lost, as the paper was not properly dampened by the Press as they hurried to meet a deadline. According to the Publisher's Note by Douglas Cleverdon, Jones acquired the ten blocks in order to ensure that they would not be reprinted without his approval. In 1977, Jones gave Clover Hill Editions his blessing to reprint the book using his original blocks, in the manner that he originally intended. In this present edition, the illustrations are at once dark, clear, and retain their minute detail in the fine lines. This copy also contains a portfolio of wood engravings printed on Japon. In the portfolio, the images are printed directly from the blocks onto the Japon, revealing even greater clarity in Jones's work. The book is very fine in the publisher's binding of morocco-backed marbled boards. The book and portfolio are housed in a linen slipcase with a paper label on the spine. Bookplate. (Cleverdon, 19)