Geraldine Edith (text). Mortimer MENPES (illust.). The Thames.

by MITTON

£200 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

MITTON, Geraldine Edith (text). Mortimer MENPES (illust.). The Thames. London, Adam and Charles Black , 1906. 8vo., Original grey-blue cloth with decorative boards printed in green, white and light blue, lettered in gilt with a gilt top edge; 55 colour-plate illustrations, captioned on the tissue guards and 20 colour printed chapter headings, pull-out map of the Thames and [2] pp publishers advertisements; endpapers far less toned than usual, a very good, fresh, copy with gist inscription, dated 1940 to front fly-leaf. First edition. 3000 copies. This volume is unusual in that this was the first time such illustrations had appeared as chapter headings on the same page as the text matter. A laborious process, in that the paper had to first be coated (as the three colour process was only successful on art paper), the experiment was not repeated. A previous text written by Menpes' daughter, Dorothy, was rejected for being of an 'inadequate quality'. ‘A C Black’s Twenty Shilling series of colour plate books, published from 1901 onwards, brought the world into the home at a time when travel, especially overseas, was much more difficult than it is today. For the first time books containing large numbers of colour plates – up to 100 per volume – were made available to the public at an affordable price.’ (Inman) Inman 80. SKU: 2108561

• Binding: Hardcover

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