Robert R. Reid Printing & Book Design

Limitation: Originally printed in 1871 at the office of the MAINLAND GUARDIAN, New Westminster, British Columbia. First reprinted in 1958 by Robert Reid & Takao Tanabe at their private press. 275 copies printed from Caslon type on British Hand Made paper, of which numbers 1 to 10 are bound in full Oasis Niger and numbers 11 to 275 in quarter Oasis Niger and marbled paper. This is copy number / PRINTED IN CANADA

Colophon: This is the second in a series of books pertaining to the history of British Columbia from the private press of Robert Reid, now joined by Takao Tanabe. The binding is by Felicity Reid, the marbling by Sherry Grauer. / The copy followed is in the Howay-Reid Collection of the University of British Columbia Library. Four typographical errors have been corrected, but the resetting is otherwise the same. / We are indebted to the Provincial Librarian and Archivist, Willard E. Ireland, who lent the original title cover for reproduction, and to the Librarian of the New Westminster Public Library, Amy Hutcheson, who helped find the facsimile of the advertisement from the Mainland Guardian. / [press device in green]

Description: 9.25 x 9.85 inches. Quarter brown leather with marbled paper over boards. Deckle along bottom edge. Green Ingres laid paper endsections. Red leather label on spine: GOLD in gilt, with double gilt lines at top and bottom. Copies bound by Fritz Brunn have vellum tips and white register ribbon; copies bound by Felicity Reid and Tak Tanabe (approximately 100 total) do not.

Issue price: C$17.50

Notes:Two prospectuses were issued: an eight-page pamphlet commensurate with the design of the book (which appeared as as insert to B.C. Library Quarterly, which Reid was design and printing at the time), and a folded broadside. Reid's diary suggests at least half, but not more than two-thirds of the copies were bound. The topic made this title particularly interesting to American Gold Rush collectors.

The ten copies bound in Oasis Niger, priced at C$75.00, did not materialize. Subsequent to the publication of Reid's Leaves, Robert came across a small cache of the broadside prospectus. Knowing of the existence of unbound copies of Gold with bookseller Stephen Lunsford, Heavenly Monkey publisher Rollin Milroy suggested Reid finally get around to issuing the ten deluxe copies. Reid wrote a one-page afterword explaining the reasons for the delay, which was set and printed at Heavenly Monkey in 2003. Reid and Tanabe both signed the colophon, which was followed by copies of the two prospectuses. The limitation statement (verso of the title page) was left unnumbered. The books were bound in full green morocco (shown at right), with blind and gilt tooling, by Claudia Cohen, who also made the matching clamshell box. These ten deluxe copies (plus four contributor copies, similarly bound) were completed and first issued by Stephen Lunsford in late 2005.

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