THE MERMAID'S PURSE.

[Bideford] : Sunstone Press, (1993). First edition : published in a limited edition of 100 copies by Hughes' own Sunstone Press, but this copy, without the limitation statement, evidently bound up from a small over-run of sheets remaining at the printers. Twenty-eight poems on the creatures of the sea - "Starfish", "Whelk", "Whale", "Lobster", etc. - each stunningly illustrated with a full-page colour illustration by Hughes' Sunstone partner, the artist Reginald James Lloyd (1926-2020), who has signed and dated this copy, 17th August 2007. A disagreement with his regular publishers, Faber & Faber, over this "naughty adventure" in self-publishing meant that when the Faber edition eventually appeared, after Hughes' death and six years later, the illustrations were by a different artist (Flora McDonnell) and, attractive as they are, they are simply not the original illustrations of this full collaboration between artist and poet - the work of each inspired by the other. Demy 8vo (210 x 146mm). [iv],28 leaves. Frontispiece and twenty-eight full-page coloured illustrations by Lloyd; bound in a smart recent half red morocco, ruled, blocked and lettered in gilt, with Lloyd's original "kelp" endpapers; a very good copy indeed of one of the scarcest of Hughes' printed books. Just a single copy (Cambridge) of this edition located in major UK libraries. Loosely inserted are two invitations to exhibitions of Lloyd's work at Winchcombe and Bideford, dated 2006 and 2007 respectively.