Candide, or, All For the Best (Parts I and II) by Voltaire de, M. [Francois-Marie Arouet]; Tice, Clara (Etchings) - 1927

New York: The Bennett Libraries Inc, 1927. Limited Edition. Leather bound. Near Fine. Tice, Clara. No. 89 of 250 special copies, octavo size, 189 pp. Clara Tice (1888-1973), avante-garde illustrator and artist, spent most of her life in New York City; due to her provocative art she was seen as representative of bohemian Greenwich Village. Her fame actually increased when the Society for the Suppression of Vice (remember, this was 1915) tried to confiscate her art; this naturally drew more attention to her art which was thereafter published in works such as Vanity Fair. Looking at the etchings in this book might cause comment even today; they lavishly celebrate the feminine figure and are rampant with sexual innuendo.

This one of the 250 special edition copies, bound in full morocco by Whitman Bennett, N.Y., and printed on special deckle-edge Pannekoek paper. The text, according to the title page, an exact copy of the "Earliest English Text Printed in Holland by Joh. Enschede en Zonen".

___DESCRIPTION: Red leather binding by Whitman Bennett, N.Y. (with their stamp on the verso of the front free endpaper) with two female seated nudes depicted in gilt on the front corners, four raised bands on the spine, gilt rules, decorations and lettering on the spine with "Special Issue" at the tail, top edge gilt, other edges uncut, gilt rules on the turn-ins, decorative endpapers, limitation statement on the verso of the half-title page, two separate title pages for each Part in red and black (Part II title page being on page 121 of the book), with ten full-colour etchings by Tice, each etching with its tissue guard, Table of Contents at the end; octavo size (9 1/8" by 6 1/4"), pagination: [1]-182, [Table of Contents, 183-189]; limited edition, this no. 89 of 250 special copies (total edition 1000).

___CONDITION: Near fine; the leather binding smooth and supple, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the text pages clean and bright, all of the etchings with their tissue guards present, and the book is entirely free of prior owner markings; we are grading near fine due to a few very light marks to the leather on the back board, a few pages roughly opened, one leaf with a short closed fore-edge tear (pp. 173-174) and the black ink on the etchings has powdered slightly; still a near fine example of Tice's outstanding nudes.

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