Fine Books

London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1912. Hardcover. Near Fine/very good. Quarto size, 347 pp. Alfred William Pollard (1859-1944) was an English bibliographer who was widely credited for bringing a higher level of scholarly rigor to the study of Shakespearean texts. This volume, part of the Connoisseur's Library, was intended to be a survey of both printing and book illustration from its beginnings to the (then) current day. In his preface, Mr. Pollard apologies for falling a bit short of the mark due to constraints both of "the limits of the present volume [and] of the author's working life". He promises that the full scope of printing has been included, but, alas, illustration only through about 1780; one wonders if he had planned another volume to cover that story of "a hundred and thirty years of very interesting picture-work". What is included is fascinating to any student of the history of printing and illustration, and covers subjects such "Collectors and Collecting", "Block Books", "The Invention of Printing", Early Dutch, German, French, Spanish, and Italian Illustrated Books, "Printing in England", and "Modern Fine Printings", among others.

___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full red cloth, spine richly decorated in gilt and with gilt lettering, the upper portion of the front board also decorated and lettered in gilt, remainder of front board with a repeating pattern of blind-embossed floral ornaments, the whole surrounded by a blind-embossed narrow double ruled border, top edge gilt, fore- and bottom edges uncut, forty tissue-guarded black and white illustrations (including the frontispiece) throughout the text (not included in pagination), many signatures unopened; quarto size (10.25" by 7"), pagination: [i-vi] vii-xv, 1-331, [332]; in a tan paper dust jacket, with a design in green and red which mirrors the design on the binding, the flaps and rear panel blank.

___CONDITION: Volume near fine, the gilt on the binding bright, a strong, square text block with a solid front hinge (back hinge with a narrow crack but the board firmly attached), the interior is clean and bright, all illustrations are present as called for and with the original tissue guards, the book entirely free of prior owner markings; the lower corners are gently bumped, the top front joint also bumped, and some offsetting to the endpapers; the dust jacket very good, entire, not clipped (although without any printed price), some minor overall edgewear, the spine sunned, and a two-inch closed tear at the top of the back joint. Overall a lovely copy and, as of this writing, the only copy being offered with the dust jacket.

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