BARNETT, Percy Neville.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Hiroshige. Signed limited edition, number 119 of 200 copies signed and numbered by the author, stamped with his red Japanese seal, and illustrated with 20 Japanese prints. For his exquisite publications, "Barnett chose the best materials available: he procured type-fonts from Germany, used hand-made paper, and imported vellum from England, board from Scotland, silk from China and brocade from Japan" (ANB).The New Zealand-born Percy Neville Barnett (1891-1953) devoted the first half of his life to the study of bookplates, publishing several limited editions on the subject. In the 1930s, he turned his attention to Japanese woodblock printing, employing "40,000 prints and specially designed endpapers from Japan for a series of charming books including Japanese Colour-Prints (1936), Colour Prints of Hiroshige (1937), Hiroshige (1938), Figure Prints of Japan (1948) and Japanese Art (1953)... Barnett not only wrote the text; he also designed and published each work, and signed and numbered each copy of his limited editions. A perfectionist at a time when the second-rate satisfied many people... his books were printed in Sydney at the Beacon Press, whose proprietor H. P. Mortlock was a dedicated craftsman" (ANB).Provenance: Lady Zara Eileen Gowrie (1879-1965), "a woman ahead of her time, renowned for her work in promoting the welfare of children in Australia". During her husband's tenure as Australia's governor-general, she "lobbied extensively for the establishment of [wellbeing] c

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