Quaint and Select Pictures

Testing Sanitary Fluid on a Measles Germ
And Other Delightfully Demented Inventions

ROBINSON, W. Heath. Quaint and Select Pictures. London: G. Heath Robinson & J. Birch, n.d. [1922].

First edition. Quarto (12 3/8 x 9 1/4 in; 315 x 234 mm). [2], 26 recto-only pp. Thirteen full-page half-tone plates.

Publisher's original ivory wrappers, printed in black and red. Mild soiling, otherwise a fine copy of a scarce work.

Distilling the perfect Scot's whiskey, how to tip matches with phosphorus, tire-testing, squeezing gas out of a piece of coal, advances in furniture for the ideal home, etc. are just a few of the inspiring contraptions to spring form the fertile imagination of W. Heath Robinson.

"In about 1920 Heath Robinson's younger brother, George, in partnership with J. Birch, embarked on a career in publishing and advertising... Their first publication was Get On With It, a one-off magazine-style booklet designed around a series of double-page advertisements...Most of the advertisers used their standard press advertisements, but Pears and Eno commissioned drawings from Heath Robinson. Thirteen of the full-page drawings from this booklet were reissued the following year, printed in sepia and bound with a stiff card cover, under the title Quaint and Select Pictures" (Beare, p. 23).

Beare, Illustrations... A9.

Price: $550

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