 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
[Four titles sold here as a set.] Hard cover, various sizes, in graduating color, paper-covered boards, various pages, 1903, First Edition. This was the complete output of famed American graphic designer Will H. Bradley designed at his home studio called The Sign of the Vine in Concord, Massachusetts and features all his own artwork and some hand-lettered typography process lithographed with zinc plates. Printed at the Heintzman Press, Boston. Colophon in each reads : "Arranged and Put into Type by Will Bradley, and Issued from The Sign of the Vine, Concord, Massachusetts." CONDITION of entire set, OVERALL: Very Good Plus, with specifics noted below. **First item, RABBI BEN EZRA, by Robert Browning, first published in 1864, 16mo, (4 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches), grey paper-covered boards, cream end papers, unpaginated ,[24pp.],unopened, untrimmed, rubricated title page with sprays of transitional art deco roses (which pay some tribute to Glasgow artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh). Robert Browning's famous 1864 poem about thirteenth-century Jewish poet and scholar Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra. Condition: (this booklet only) Very Good Minus (mouse nibble ? lower right corner of cover). Otherwise, clean, tight and bright. Bambace A61.**Second item, A DISSERTATION UPON ROAST PIG, by Charles Lamb, (1775-1834) 16mo, in spruce blue paper-covered boards, 18pp.,unopened, untrimmed, with a "Will Bradley" signature to prelim., (not verified). The title page and frontispiece, with a woodblock-inspired Bradley illustration, have matching rubricated Arts and Crafts style frames. There is a nice tailpiece on page 19. Bambace A62.**Third item, A LOVE SONG by George Wither (1588-1667), 32mo, (3 1/4 x 4 3/4 inches) in pale blue paper-covered boards, unopened, untrimmed, unnumbered,16pp. English Puritan Author, pamphleteer and poet, George Wither (1588-1667) also wrote a few songs in his younger years. The entire poem was anthologized in an illustrated volume "Old Songs" (New York, Harper Bros., 1889), but Bradley has chosen a partial selection of stanzas. Rubricated title with Bradley designed Arts and Crafts style border. Condition: (this only) Near Fine. Several very faint marks to cover and spine. One tiny abrasion to title label. Pages unopened. Very clean otherwise. Bambace A63. **Fourth item, THE LEATHER BOTTEL by John Wade (fl. 1660-80), 32mo, (measuring 3 1/4 x 4 3/4 inches), in butter-yellow laid paper-covered boards, in nine numbered stanzas, unpaginated,[16 pp.], unopened, untrimmed, The frontispiece illustration, done in a woodblock style, shows a man in medieval garb, hoisting a drinking vessel, his sword momentarily forgotten. **CONDITION: Near Fine. A couple of very light marks show to the front board, and very, very faintly to the paper label. Edges are crisp and unworn. Inside, pages are clean and bright, with only one observed fault at page 2 which is considered to be a printing fault resulting in a small ghost of black ink (perhaps from the paper jig on the press) These things happen. The text is a seventeenth-century English drinking song, written by John Wade, listed in Angela McShane's article, "Drink, Song and Politics in Early Modern England" 2016.) Bambace A64. A scarce collection from arguably the most influential American graphic designer and typographer of his time.
Ref: ILLWHB 9018
$325.00