TICE, Clara (illus.); BOCCACCIO, Giovanni.

£3,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Decameron. First Tice edition, signed limited issue, this copy uniquely, if erratically, illustrated, with the issued half-tone plates replaced with Tice's original hand-captioned etchings, and three of Tice's expurgated illustrations in two states, one of which not called for in the list of illustrations. This is number 334 of 2,000 copies signed by the publisher, this copy is unusual in being also signed by Tice.Several of the explicit erotic illustrations Tice produced for this work were deemed too risqué for general publication and Tice was asked to redraw them for the final edition; some of them were never issued. This set includes three of these ribald plates, alongside their censored replacements. We were able to trace only one other set with a number of these illustrations included, though in that copy they were half-tone reproductions rather than original etchings as here. A deluxe issue of 12 sets with etchings was also produced, and we have traced only one copy of it in auction records. The etchings in this set are hand-captioned by Tice, with page numbers that differ from both their location and the printed illustration list, suggesting that they may have been produced for Tice's own reference when working on the book's production.The set is accompanied by a suite of the removed half-tone illustrations and a second set of 22 of the 48 illustrations as etchings, these uncaptioned (excepting one, captioned p. 36). One of the etchings is in two states: one with Tice'

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