British Gazette 17 issues complete signed Winston Churchill Stanley Baldwin 1926

CHURCHILL Winston S. (editor). The British Gazette. Nos. 1-8, with 9 additional morning and evening variants, together 17 issues.
 
London, H.M.S.O., 5-13 May 1926.
 
Elephant folio, 17 issues, each approx. 591 x 451 mm, bound in one volume. Full crushed morocco by Henry.T. Wood, signed, covers with gilt rule borders and gilt lettering to upper cover "British Gazette / May 5-13 1926", silked throughout. A little rubbing and marking to binding, with small scuff at foot of spine. Contents generally in notably good condition for the format and material, with the usual old folds, a few small tears to first preliminary page at lower edge and a small old repair, but overall a very sound and well-preserved near fine set of an inherently fragile publication.
 
Signed on the front free endpaper by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Chancellor Winston S. Churchill, and M.P John C.C. Davidson. Contemporary calligraphic note on preliminary leaf: "British Gazette / May 5th-13th 1926 / Complete set of 17 editions / one of 12 such sets in existence."
 
A complete bound run of the Government's newspaper issued during the General Strike of May 1926, here preserving not only the eight numbered issues but also the variant morning and evening printings, making up the full sequence of 17 editions. Edited by Churchill as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Baldwin's government, and managed at the political level by J.C.C. Davidson, the British Gazette was produced as the official anti-strike paper and became one of the most emblematic printed survivals of the crisis. This set includes the variant forms of the early issues, including the different settings of No. 2, and the extended and reset form of No. 8 containing "The Birth and Life of the British Gazette". 
 
The paper ran almost simultaneously with the strike and ended when the industrial action was called off. The strike came about due to long standing unrest by coal miners in relation to wages and working conditions. Many other industry sectors also stood in unison with them. 
 
Churchill said in the commons after the end of the periodical and directed to labour MPs "Make your minds perfectly clear that if you ever let loose upon us again a general strike, we will let loose upon you another British Gazette!". 
 
The specially commissioned morocco binding by Henry T. Wood, together with the signatures of Baldwin, Churchill, and Davidson, suggests a contemporary presentation or commemorative issue. It is most uncommon to find all 17 editions bound with the signatures of the main protagonists in government.