'Ashbee thought [The Essex House Song Book] the best book issued by the Press, apart from The Prayer Book [cf. lot 161]' (Crawford p. 398). The Song Book was originally issued as ten separate fascicules in green portfolios, which were then often bound up as a volume, like this copy. The present binding is unsigned, but stylistically has much in common with the bindings produced by Anastasia Power at the Guild of Handicraft for The Essex House Press, which were in turn influenced by Douglas Cockerell who had bound for the press prior to Power. Certainly the geometric panelling of the boards which integrates the floral corner-pieces into the fillets forming the panel, the stylised flower and leaf tools, and the symmetrical floral sprays filling the spine compartments are all reminiscent of Cockerell's work at this period, suggesting that the present copy may have been bound by an associate of Cockerell's or Power's.