WHY FIRST EDITIONS? [with:] JAMES F. DRAKE, ESQ

[ New York: Bernhardt Wall, 1921. Two original etchings (platemarks 17.5 x 12.5 cm approx), in sienna and brown, with large margins. Matted. About fine (a couple scuffs to mat). The first etching is the text of Drake's justification of collecting first editions (both economic and intellectual), and the second is Wall's etched portrait of Drake. These appeared as two of the sixteen original etchings prepared for I:3 of WALL'S ETCHED MONTHLY (March 1921, limited to 125 copies). Drake served as the distributor and promoter at the time of Wall's periodicals and publications. He also sold single prints of the etchings (see Weber, p.53), but the two examples in hand have clean stabholes in the extreme left margins from once having been part of a copy of the issue. Weber also notes that Drake's selling price for individual prints was the same as for complete issues (containing 16 etchings in this case). (Inventory #: WRCLIT58759)