The Bookplates of G.D. Perrottet
Adelaide, Wakefield Press, 1942.
Octavo (225 x 150 mm), [ii] (blank), 23, [3] (blank, colophon, blank) pages with 11 (of 12) tipped-in bookplates by George Perrottet (the majority are printed in two or three colours, several have additional hand-colouring). For details of the bookplate missing from page 14 (for Ruth Penfold), read on.
Attached overlapping wrappers over plain saddle-stapled card covers; essentially a fine copy stub-mounted at the front of a handmade album (but please continue to read on!).
Number 33 of 275 copies of the second publication of Harry Muir's Wakefield Press; he was also the compiler of this work, and contributed the two-page introduction. This copy is inscribed on the title page to 'E.E. Pescott with every good [sic]. H.B. Muir 7.1.43'. Tipped in on the recto of the frontispiece is a short typed letter signed from the author to Pescott (18 January 1943): thanks for the postal notes, glad you like the book ... 'I think it was well worth doing and hope there will be large sales as such would greatly help Perrottet's reputation'. George Perrottet has also signed the title page. Loosely inserted is a warm and lengthy autograph letter signed from 'George' to 'Ted' (Pescott), referring to Pescott's previous letter which apparently contained a list of Perrottet's bookplates in his collection. 'Dredging through my desk has brought to light some 30 odd plates which do not appear on your list - they are enclosed. Would very much appreciate your criticism. Personally I like best the Nancy Rogers Ash (which I had previously used as a Xmas card) and the Bathurst Public School'. The album (approximately 250 x 170 mm, fashioned out of cloth boards recycled from discarded books) contains a 1943 portrait photograph of Perrottet (90 x 68 mm); a bookplate for him (a Japanese colour woodblock design, with '1934' and 'Sho.-' printed in the image, signed in pencil from Perrottet to Ted Pescott); his two-colour linocut Christmas card for 1945 ('George & Muriel Perrottet present Christmas Greetings - in Technicolor and with Bells On'); and 90 Perrottet-designed bookplates, ranging at least from 1930 to 1946, tipped in on the rectos of the thick good-quality paper leaves (with few exceptions, one to a leaf). The overwhelming majority are colour linocuts (some with additional hand-colouring); 74 plates are signed in pencil by the artist (often with the date); a number of them have his annotations ('Lino', 'Wood', 'Rough Pull', '1st State'). Harry Muir's introduction makes several observations well worth quoting: 'In his linocuts Perrottet has proved his craftsmanship by overcoming the limitations of his material, and has attained the technical achievement of reproducing almost completely the effect of a woodcut. In the few instances where he has combined wood and linoleum in the one plate this is particularly noticeable.... It was his sense of colour which did much to revive the interest in colour bookplates ... But it is in his hand-coloured examples that this sense is most manifest - several such plates are a perpetual joy to the eye'. There is very little overlap of any kind in the 101 bookplates. Five of the bookplates in the published work appear also in the album, but only one of these (Harry Muir's 'Galsworthy' plate) is an exact duplicate. The other four (Marcie Collett - incidentally, Harry's wife - Hagley, Jenkinson and Sally), as well as four present in two examples in the album (Gatehouse, Penfold, Pescott, and Preston), are all variants of one kind or another (at the very least, being signed or unsigned). The hand-coloured and colour-printed version of the Ruth Penfold bookplate, tipped in before an example that is only colour-printed, is the one removed from the published work. This comprehensive collection of the bookplate artwork of George David Perrottet (1890-1971) is proof-positive that it has stood the test of time. Edward Edgar Pescott (1872-1954), horticulturalist, naturalist, author, bibliographer, bookplate and indefatigable maker of useful notes ... In this particular instance, the postcard-size manuscript insert tells us that 'The maternal grandfather of G.D.P. was Dr. Foster Shaw of Geelong. G.D.P. states that Dr. Shaw was an English Baronet, but that he renounced the title on coming to Australia. Dr. Shaw is recorded in the Geelong Directory of 1854 & 1861 as living in Corio Terrace'.
Item #105991
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