From the Doheny Library
A Magnificent Presentation Copy
Bound To Impress
With An Original Watercolor Drawing
GREENAWAY, Kate. A Apple Pie. London: George Routledge and Son, n.d.[1886].
First edition, first issue, the Doheny copy, a Presentation copy inscribed by the illustrator on the title-page: "Joan Ponsonby from Kate Greenaway 1894," and with a small watercolor drawing by Greenaway of a young girl on the half-title, bearing initials and date "1894."
Oblong quarto (8 7/16 x 10 1/8 in; 214 x 258 mm). [44] pp. Twenty color illustrations.
Elegantly bound c. 1910-1920 by Stikeman & Co. N.Y. (stamp-signed on lower turn-in) in full crimson levant morocco, covers decoratively gilt with floral cornerpieces, spine in six compartments with five raised bands, gilt lettered in two compartments, a repeated gilt-tooled panel in the rest, board-edges and turn-ins gilt, green morocco doublures with decorative gilt border, red moire silk flyleaves. Original wrappers preserved at rear. With the bookplates of Estelle Doheny and Louise Ward Watkins. Sales receipt from bookseller Barnet J. Beyer to Mrs. Watkins laid in. A fine, stunning copy. Chemised and housed within a quarter morocco slipcase.
The finest copy extant. None comparable with an original watercolor has been seen at auction since the Mills-Benz copy at Sotheby's, June 2, 1995 ($6,500). That copy, in the original boards, however, was not in the best of condition.
"In early autumn, exhausted and in need of a rest, Kate did accept the invitation of a friend and patron, the Hon. Gerald Ponsonby and his wife, who asked her to spend some time with them at their Bournemouth summer house. This was the first of a series of of annual autumn visits to Bournemouth. This year [1891] she painted portraits of the Ponsonby girls; and this and every year after, she and Gerald Ponsonby enjoyed long discussions abut art, antiques and books. Ponsonby was a respected connoisseur..." (Englen, p. 171).
"The Hon. Gerald [private secretary to the Viceroy of Ireland, 1847-1852, and to British Prime Minister Palmerston 1857-1858] and Lady Maria Ponsonby were friends and patrons of Greenaway. In 1891 Greenaway executed for Mr. Ponsonby a set of tiny watercolor portraits of the Ponsonby children, and the watercolor of Joan from this year resembles the pose the Greenaway includes on the half-title of this copy. See Spielmann and Layard, pp. 167, 182" (Doheny Sale Catalogue, 2/22/1989, no. 1985). The portrait that Spielmann refers to is found on p. 276 of his book, Kate Greenaway (1905).
Schuster and Engen 1a. Osborn I, p. 90.
Price: $0
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