Lot: Typee; A Sentimental Journey; The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard; Mademoiselle de Maupin; Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; A Tale of Two Cities

A lovely little collection of six of Folio Society's earlier publications in good minus condition. Well read copies showing their age and use, with foxing to edges, the odd bumped corner, light rubbing to some extremities and the occasional small mark. Despite this, pages are all tightly bound on all volumes and pages are clean, bright and uninscribed. The original dust wrappers are present (with the exception of the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde volume which comes in a replacement wrapper); there will be some nibbling to the extremities and the odd tear which has been repaired on the inside with acid-free repair tape. Containing:

Herman Melville, Typee. London: The Folio Society, 1950. Introduction by Robert Gibbings, with pencil drawings by Jacques Boullaire. 228 × 149 × 28 mm. Pp. [i–xiv], [1] 2–277 [278]: [9] leaves of collotype plates (facing pp. [1], 6, 39, 55, 70, 135, 150, 199 and 214). Type: Perpetua with Gill Floriated capitals for display. Printed by the Thanet Press, the collotypes by the Chiswick Press. Bound by Stevenson in full yellow cloth with a repeat pattern in green by John Buckland-Wright. White dust-jacket printed in green and black. Charles Ede notes in Folio 21 that ‘The artist originally agreed to illustrate the book with drypoints, but found it impossible to complete these in the Marquesas, where he was staying at the time...’

[together with]

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne. London: The Folio Society, 1949. With an introduction by Oliver Warner and illustrations by Nigel Lambourne. 208 × 147 × 19 mm. Pp. [i–ii] iii–xii, [1] 2–161 [162–164]: [16] leaves of colour plates. Type: Baskerville with Juno for display. Printed in black and pink by Cowell. Bound by Cowell in full white cloth with a design in blue, pink and black by Barbara Ward Lambourne; endleaves with a design in blue by B.W. Lambourne. White dust-jacket printed in blue, pink and black. Charles Ede says in Folio 21 that ‘The illustrations were drawn on Plastocowell, then a comparatively new process, and in some cases the artist had difficulty in judging the final weight of the colours, which had to be drawn in black as separations’.

[together with]

The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard by Anatole France. London: The Folio Society, 1948. A translation by Lafcadio Hearn, illustrated by [Harold] Hope-Read [sic]. Introduction by Lafcadio Hearn. 222 × 145 × 20 mm. Pp. [i–iv] v–vii [viii–x], 1–180 [181–182]: [14] leaves of plates. Type: Plantin with Bodoni Ultra italic for display. Printed by Cowell. Bound by Mackay in full white cloth patterned in brown and pink, black leather spine-label. White dust-jacket printed in pink and brown repeating the pattern on the boards. The artist Harold Hope Read (1881–1959) usually spelt his name without a hyphen.

[together with]

Théophile Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin. London: The Folio Society, 1948. Translated by R. and E. Powys Mathers, illustrated by Mark Severin. 227 × 174 × 25 mm. Pp. [1–6] 7–284 [285–288]: [8] leaves of collotype plates (facing pp. 32, 52, 72, 112, 206, 222, 248 and 278). Type: Perpetua. Printed by Book Plates (Photo Litho) Ltd, the plates by the Chiswick Press. Bound by Book Plates (Photo Litho) Ltd in full cream cloth, decorated in blue and gold. Cream dust-jacket printed in red and black. The text was printed photolithographically, in a reduced format, from the Golden Cockerel Press edition (1938). Charles Ede says in Folio 21 that ‘the resulting bastard format has been found useful on a number of subsequent occasions, not least for the Shakespeare series. The pencil drawings should have been engravings, but we just could not afford to pay for the additional work.’

[together with]

Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. London: The Folio Society, 1974. A photolithographic reprint of the 1948 Folio edition with the imprint of The Folio Press and J.M. Dent. Illustrations by Mervyn Peake, introduction by John Hampden. 221 × 142 × 15 mm. Pp. [1–8] 9–148. Type: Imprint. Printed in black and yellow by Cambridge University Press. Bound by J.M. Dent in full black cloth with the figure of Hyde in gold; yellow endleaves. Transparent plastic dust-jacket with yellow paper flaps. The 12 full-page illustrations were printed from relief blocks, in black and yellow. The yellow was also used for capitals and display, although Charles Ede thought it ‘too weak’ for this purpose. Most of the illustrations appear facing chapter openings, with the chapter title printed in yellow on the recto.

[together with]

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. London: The Folio Society, 1974. A photolithographic reprint of the 1952 edition with the imprint of the Folio Press and J.M. Dent. with drawings by Richard Sharp. 227 × 150 × 27 mm. Pp. [i–iv], [1–2] 3–329 [330]: [13] leaves of line-block ‘plates’. Type: Plantin with Perpetua for display. Printed by Cambridge University Press. Bound by J.M. Dent in full red cloth decorated in gold; pink endleaves. Transparent plastic dust-jacket with pink paper flaps printed in black. Although the plates were here printed from line-blocks as part of the letterpress gatherings they are, in exact opposition to the foregoing item, not included in the pagination. This was the first of many, many books in which such false ‘plates’ were printed.