Hiroshige
Sydney, The Author, 1938.
Octavo, [5]-46 pages with 20 tipped-in colour plates plus superb colour-pictorial endpapers.
Quarter vellum and textured cream papered boards (both lettered in gilt), all edges gilt; plates a little offset, with some glue discolouration (as ever); essentially a fine copy with the original clear celluloid dustwrapper and the original slipcase (slightly split at the opening). The author's catalogue describes it thus: 'Bound in vellum and ivory tinted "kid"-paper. Celluloid jacket. Special case covered to match book'.
Number 101 of only 200 copies signed and sealed by the author (and hand-set and printed by Harrie Mortlock at the Beacon Press). Loosely inserted is a four-page pictorial prospectus headed 'Japanese Colour-Prints', advertising the author's other books on the subject. Percy Neville Barnett (1881-1953), author, publisher and book-plate authority, in the 1930s '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 #135331
Price (AUD):
$1,100.00