Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing

London: Faber & Faber, 1972. Second revised. Hardcover. Very Good +/very good +. Second edition, revised and enlarged. Illustrated throughout in b/w, with 16 different color plates than the first edition, but which "relate to them", as McLean states. McLean approached this book not as an examination of book illustration in the Victorian era, as so many already have, but as a factual account of the process and materials and labor that went into the actual making of the book. The scope of the book is therefore narrowed to the period between the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837, to the establishing of The Kelmscott Press in 1890. McLean goes into impressive detail, from the evolution of the use of color in childrens books, to the detailed guaffering of SAKOONTALA - published, printed, and bound by Stephen Austin. It's a fascinating look at Victorian era book design (and production), and an invaluable reference for the field. 9"x11.5"; xii, 241 pages. Beige cloth with circular red pictorial inset; hinges are rather free moving, and a large scetion of the text block looks to have been bumped, resulting in faint crease marks on the upper corner of many pages. Dust wrapper is toned, but no loss or tears; in brodart.