I have been in the rare and antiquarian book business for over forty years; my family has been in the rare books business since 1876. Rare books are in my blood.
The Fables of Æsop
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1909. Item #03586
One of 750 Copies Signed by the Artist
Aesop's Fables Illustrated by Edward J. Detmold with Twenty-Five Magnificent Color Plates
[DETMOLD, Edward J., illustrator]. AESOP. The Fables of Æsop. Illustrated with 25 Drawings in Color by Edward J. Detmold. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1909.
One of 750 copies signed by Edward J. Detmold, of which this is no. 467.
Large quarto (12 1/8 x 9 7/8 inches; 308 x 250 mm.). 80 Un-numbered leaves. Twenty-five magnificent mounted color plates, some with slightly irregular shapes.
Publisher's white buckram, front cover pictorially stamped in gilt, spine lettered in gilt, publishers gilt emblem on back cover, top edge gilt, others uncut, plain end-papers except for small publishers' emblem printed in gray. Neat ink name on front free end-paper, spine slightly darkened and 'mottled' otherwise a very fine copy. Housed in the publishers white cardboard slip-case (repaired).
An interesting feature of this book is the sometime slightly irregular shapes of the mounted color plates.
"Except where separately acknowledged the fables in this volume are printed from the third edition of Sir Roger L'Estrange's translation (1699)." (Publishers' note).
After the tragic death of his twin brother and collaborator, Edward Detmold concentrated his talents on books, primarily of flowers and animals: “Detmold’s finest plates are those produced for The Fables of Aesop (1909), The Life of the Bee (1911), and Hours of Gladness (1912), the latter with texts after Maurice Maeterlinck, the Belgian poet, naturalist, and mystic…A painting of chrysanthemums, contained in Hours of Gladness, is a glorious acknowledgement of the artist's debt to William Morris and Burne-Jones” (David Larkin, The Fantastic Creatures of Edward Julius Detmold).
Price: $2,850.00