Bell, Robert Anning
An original and early pen and ink drawing measuring 6 x 4 1/2 inches (image size) by Robert Anning Bell, English Arts & Crafts artist and designer, depicting four fairy figures and a baby, from Act II. Scene I of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Shakespeare, in pen and ink, with a few daubs heightened in white, undated, but 1895. A very expressive and representative illustration by this master of book illustration at the Turn of the Century in England. House in its "original" Arts & Crafts wood frame, with the framer's original label, "City Frame Company, etc" and a note opposite in a modern hand: "In its original frame with this label." Fine.
Rennie, James
12mo, xx, 122pp., preliminary advert leaf. In the publisher's original dark green glazed linen boards (very early cloth binding!) with printed paper label on the cover, a vignette woodcut on title page, and woodcut text illustrations. A very good copy of the scarce first edition. James Rennie (1787-1867) graduated from Glasgow University where he initially studied natural sciences, moved to London in 1821, and between 1830 to 1834, was professor of natural history and zoology at King's College. He emigrated to Australian 1840, headed up the College High School in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, with an emphasis on the arts and natural history. The second series of ëAlphabetí books of which Rennie proposed to publish a volume or part every two or three months.î They were designed to improve on the ëLibrary of Useful Knowledgeí which he thought too abstruse, and ill-adapted for beginners. Very good with slight nick, wear to spine. Most scarce.
Wolcot, John [Peter Pindar]
First Edition. 4to. 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches. Contemporary smooth call with three gilt fillet border lines, five raised bands with intricate gilt-tooled panels, all edges gilt. This rather rare Rowlandson title features four hand-coloured etched plates by Rowlandson/ The book is a a poem on the fall of an "under-petticoat" at a ball at Dublin Castle. The Albert M. Cohn copy with bookplate. This prose work by Wolcot, aka Peter Pinder, lavishes on the theme of gaining interest by placing characters in comic situations. It has been said (Chen) i".polished epigram, [Pindar] loves to slip one of two sly colloquialisms into verses written in the formal Eighteenth Century style, and, thus bring out the broad fun of his conceptions." Pindar satirized Dr. Johnson and Boswell, as well as George III. Not in TOOLEY. A remarkable copy internally, all edges gilt, printed on fine, thin paper. Near fine, with some wear to covers. Very scarce.
HÈnard, Robert; Descaves, Lucien (preface)
Large folio size (13 x 10 1/2 inches. Exceedingly scarce Special Edition, Limited to 20 Copies Only (from a total edition of 330) on Imperial Japan paper, illustrated with 50 original etchings by Pierre Desbois, in three states: 1) a suite of the first state of the etchings, 2) a suite of the final state before letter and signature, and 3) a suite within the text. Superbly bound by the master bookbinder Marguerite Duprez Lahey in wonderfully impressed half tan quarter morocco over beveled oak boards (one continuous flowing design element). The binding is stamp-signed on front dentellle: "Duprez Lahey | Meligavit," and presents a and elaborately embossed (in blind) design featuring both vignettes and crests, in the style of the 15th/16th century. Braided leather straps and catches (lower catch replaced). Spine with twelve raised bands, title stamped in blind to second compartment, with remaining compartments similarly embossed in blind. Cream-colored endpapers, all edges trimmed. Matching brown morocco chemise with wood veneer and cutouts for leather braids. Gift inscription dated 1926 from Louis Roberts Taylor and his wife, Else Suetterle Taylor, a prominent Milwaukee businessman, to their son John on his third birthday. Lower catch sympathetically replaced in oak. Minor offsetting to endpapers and minor offsetting from etchings, some scattered foxing and staining.â Marguerite Duprez Lahey had an illustrious career, obtaining pivotal instruction and apprenticeship in bookbinding, early on, under many well-known bookbinders such as Alfred Schleuning in New York (Adams Bindery). Lahey laterâmoved to Paris and ".studied tooling with Marius Michel, Jules Domont, Emile Mercier, and Antoine Joly; learned edge gilding from Chapiers and Koch; and studied design with Coulomb and Henri Noulhac" (Haqqi). She began rebinding books for J. Pierpont Morgan in 1908 andâcontinued to work for the Morgan Library until her deathâin 1958. Morgan's personal librarian, and later the inaugural director of the Pierpont Morgan Library, Belle da Costa Greene, described Lahey's work as "the very best bookbinding in America." This package Includes a catalogue ofâThe Fine Bindings of Marguerite Duprez Laheyâfrom the Morgan Library exhibition of 1951/1952. While this volume was not included within the exhibition, several volumes bear similar descriptions to this one. A truly wonderful production, near the pinnacle of rarity with respect to early 20th Century printing of fine etchings, together with an exemplary binding by an illustrious bookbinder.
Markwell, Marmaduke
First Edition. 12mo. 4 3/4 x 7 inches. Original boards, half-title, 16 etched plates by Rowlandson, rather browned, text foxed, original boards, uncut, rubbed, rebacked, new endpapers. An attractive book with humorous plates by the ìforemost caricaturist of this date". (Schwerdt).
