Thomas, Dylan.

Twenty-four Years. Lisbon: Christmas, 1940 [actually Paris, 1969], small format (76 x 57mm.), one of 2 hand-illustrated copies on old Florentine paper, out of a total edition of 9 copies, original hand-coloured illustration by prokosch (signed "1.XI.1940. F. Prokosch"), original marbled wrappers, gold label printed in black
The Hand. Venice, 1939 [actually Paris, 1970], small format 73 x 57mm.), one of 3 copies on Canson of a total edition of 10, original hand-coloured illustration by prokosch (signed "6.VII.1939. F. Prokosch"), original dark red-gold marbled wrappers, gold label printed in black; both works inset in and preserved in brown crushed morocco case and slipcase by the Guneo Studio

Barker 39, 38

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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Twenty-Four Years has a bibliographical note by Prokosch, asserting that it was "Printed in Lisbon | at the Sociedade | Typographical in Nov - | ember 1940. | The drawings | were done during | the same month in | the Hotel Palacia | in Estoril, where I | live from October | 1939 until September | 1941. | The text follows | the manuscript which | Thomas sent me in | late 1938". Although Prokosch lived at the Hotel Estoril at this time, and did indeed have several published by the Sociedade Tipografica, the press did not possess the Aster type in which the book is set, and Barker states that this is one of Prokosch's later forgeries of his own "earlier" works, printed with others in "Group VII" in Paris in late 1969. "Twenty-four Years" was first printed as "Birthday Poem" in Life and Letters Today on 16 December 1938. It was first printed under this title in the Collected Poems.

The Hand has a bibliographical note by Prokosch, asserting that it was "Printed at Mario | Conti in Venice in | August 1939, just | before the outbreak | of Wolrd War II. Most | of the copies were | lost in the subsequent | chaos and turmoil | of transit. | The drawings were | done in Cernobbio in | June-July 1939. | The test, title | included, follows | the Ms. which Thomas | sent me in 1935. | F.P." The Hand is, in fact, set in 6D and 8D Aster, which means that it could not have been printed  before the mid-1950s. Barker has established that it was actually printed in Paris in late 1970. "The Hand" was first printed as the first of "Three Poems" in New Verse in December 1935, and reprinted in 25 Poems (1936) and Collected Poems (1952).