Colour Prints of Hiroshige
Sydney, The Author, 1937.
440 x 330 mm, 86 pages with 62 tipped-in Japanese colour plates 'of a superb quality ... 17 of which are full size, 15in. x 12in. [375 x 300 mm]' (from the author's catalogue).
Quarter vellum and cream cloth (both lettered in gilt), top edge uncut; vellum lightly mottled and rubbed; cloth heavily discoloured around the edges by the glue used in production; trifling light marks on the dedication page and the blank page facing it; minimal offsetting; an excellent copy (internally fine, with all plates in superb condition).
Number 20 of only 110 copies produced, all signed by the author (and hand-set and printed by Harrie Mortlock at the Beacon Press). Percy Neville Barnett (1881-1953), author, publisher and book-plate authority; in the 1930s he 'became interested in Japanese wood-block colour-prints; he imported 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) [and] Hiroshige (1938)' (Australian Dictionary of Biography).
Item #100547
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