Artist's Proofs 1878-1879. [title compiled from front cover and backstrip]

Hardcover. Good. Heavy 1/2 leather binding containing 83 woodcut engraved proofs by Kingsley with a heavier blank leaf between each proof. The Proofs are numbered in pencil 1-84 plus 6 1/2, 28 1/2 and 84A. Four prints are missing from the numbered sequence 5, 8, 35 and 66 with three of them leaving an empty space between two blank leaves. 31 cm. Cover heavily scuffed. Some loss of cloth and leather along edges. Contents generally sound although print 84A is detached and there is general foxing (heavier on the blank leaves than on the proofs). Top edge gilt on blank leaves. Almost all of this work was done for Scribner's Monthly or St. Nicholas Magazine, (truncated) two popular magazines published by Scribner's. Each proof identified in pencil toward the bottom as to title, where it appeared, artist or "after ..." No. 56 is identified as "On the Shore, Scribner's Winslow Homer" -- Homer 78 in lower right corner of image. Bound in at the beginning of this volume is a one-page holograph letter (with an added 1898 pencil date) from James Edward Kelly thanking Eldridge for his part in enabling Kelly to be commissioned to produce a New Haven monument (probably the Defender's Monument completed in 1911). (Inventory #: 93788)