Four Portrait Busts by Francesco Laurana

Northampton Gehenna Press, 1962. Sm. 4to., parchment paper spine over Fabriano paper sides with the title gilt stamped on the spine.One of 500 copies printed in black and red in Centaur and Arrighi types on Amalfi hand-made paper; the photographic plates were printed on English Tovil hand-made paper. It was Baskin's idea to publish (and of course design) the Gehenna Essays in Art and combine serious scholarly writing with well printed, well illustrated, relatively inexpensive books in relatively luxurious limited editions. This first example with its incisive essay and superbly reproduced photographs (by Clarence Kennedy), printed at the Meriden Gravure Company, was a fitting start. The series, alas, was not long lived, but one can be happy for those books that did make it into print.See: The Gehenna Press: The Work of Fifty Years: 1942-1992. No. 29.  THE FIRST OF THE GEHENNA ESSAYS IN ART