HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN DEVON AND CORNWALL

London and New York: Macmillan Company, 1897. FIRST EDITION. 205 x 140 mm. (8 x 5 1/2"). viii, 391 pp.
VERY PRETTY OLIVE GREEN MOROCCO, GILT IN AN ARTS & CRAFTS DESIGN, BY ZAEHNSDORF (stamp-signed on front pastedown and with exhibition stamp on rear pastedown), covers abloom with stylized flowers and twining vines, gilt lettering on upper cover, raised bands, spine compartments with similar flower-and-leaves designs, gilt lettering, turn-ins tooled with gilt leaves, red silk pastedowns and endleaves, top edge gilt. With 66 illustrations by Joseph Pennell and Hugh Thomson, 26 of these full-page, and a folding map. Front flyleaf with engraved bookplate of Ophelia Fowler Duhme. Spine and edges of boards sunned to a medium brown (as expected with green leather), a breath of rubbing to spine bands and extremities, isolated thumbing, but still a fine copy--clean and fresh internally, and in a scarcely worn binding bright with gilt.

This engaging account of Southwest England features a harmoniously designed binding by an important workshop. Our author, British civil servant and writer Arthur Hamilton Norway (1859-1938), had an extremely varied literary output which included fiction, travelogues, and literary analysis. In the present work, part of a "Highways and Byways" series produced by the Macmillan Company, the author provides a delightful journey through the landscape, history, and folklore of his native Devon and neighboring Cornwall. The text is accompanied by a charming series of illustrations by Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) and Hugh Thomson (1860-1920); these alternate between cheerful sketches of the towns and scenery and romantic caricatures of the historic locals. The attractive binding is a fine example of the work of the Zaehnsdorf firm, long a top-ranked English bindery. Born in Pest, Hungary, Joseph Zaehnsdorf (1816-86) served his apprenticeship in Stuttgart, worked at a number of European locations as a journeyman, and then settled in London, where he was hired first by Westley and then by Mackenzie before opening his own workshop in 1842. His son and namesake took over the business at age 33, when the senior Joseph died, and the firm flourished under the son's leadership, becoming a leading West End bindery. Over the years, Zaehnsdorf employed a considerable number of distinguished binders, including the Frenchman Louis Genth (who was chief finisher from 1859-84), and trained a number of others, including Roger de Coverly and Sarah Prideaux. A family-run business until 1947, the Zaehnsdorf bindery continued to produce consistently attractive and innovative designs executed with unfailing skill. Here, a complex design of softly curving foliage and bright flowers mirrors the serene countryside described in the book's pages. The bookplate is most likely that of American heiress Ophelia Fowler Duhme (1854-1921), who had a handful of attractively illustrated bookplates made for her throughout her collecting life..