Written by Carol Cunningham

Mill Valley, CA; Sunflower Press, 1995. Hardcover. As new from the printer. First edition. Unpaginated (44 pp: viii, 36). Book is 2 ¹/₂ inches square; box measures 2 ³/₄ inches square. A handmade miniature book. Letterpress printed on Rives paper using Optima typeface and 11 black and white illustrations. Hand-bound in decorative silver-grey cloth over boards, with letter-pressed title-plate pasted on cover and matching silver map-motif decorative endpapers. Housed in decorative paper box with embedded compass, designed by Catriona Stewart, 1991, England.

Limited to 30 copies, numbered and signed by Carol Cunningham.

A book inspired by a fabulous box made by Catriona Stewart, an artist who lives in England. The box has a compass set into the cover and a lovely tinted picture of a compass surrounding the actual compass. Inside the lid of the box is a decorative inset with a poem by John Masefield in calligraphy.

Carol thought a book about early European sea explorers would be appropriate. Her research revealed some of the problems they encountered in trying to sail on open seas without a compass (hence the whimsical mounting of the endpapers). The book is filled with many anecdotes and illustrations of compasses and ships used by early voyagers. A small treasure for any nautical book collector, sailor, or anyone whose imagination has ever been captivated by the smell of salt-air.

$195