Cloth
1919 · England
by Martin, Gerald Trice, artist (1893-1961). Poetry by Rudyard Kipling, Algernon Charles Swinburne and Sappho
England, 1919. Cloth. Near Fine. Lovely, meticulously rendered vignette illustrations framing the key letter on each page, and on a few pages, two vignettes. Oblong, 9 by 13 cm. 28 pp. The album opens to a particularly nice pen and ink drawing of a schooner, framed with highly decorative foliate baroque ornamentation. The first poem is Kipling's "If", each letter device accompanied by a painting of a different type of sail boat or ship. Ship motives are used again in "Love at Sea", by Swinburne. Another Kipling poem, "The Explanation", is enlivened with paintings of colorful, expressive fish. In our judgment, these are the most charismatic of the illustrations. Other poems include Swinburne's "Rondel", "Before Sunset", "Song", and "Child's Song"; and some verses by Sappho. Other illustrative motives take in dragons, flowers and floral daipers, butterflies, and coasts. The poems are rendered in a neat, calligraphic hand, and it is very easy to imagine this manuscript as something that might have been published as a gift book.
(Inventory #: 004965)