The Cooper Vignettes. From Drawings By F. O. C. Darley. India Proofs Before Letter.
New York: James G. Gregory, 1862. Darley, F.O.C. Full-Leather. Very Good / No Jacket. Item #2267734
Printed on flyleaf is the following text: 'Presented to Chas. Knickerbocker, by the Steel Plate Engravers of the Western Bank Note & Engraving Co. 'as a mark of esteem' and dated 1872, which seems to indicate this volume was custom-bound for Mr. Knickerbocker in that year. Professionally rebacked with original backstrip laid down, reinforcement to edges of first and last few pages. Two photographs and two engravings laid in. Foxed throughout, boards a bit rubbed with some drying along edges, later pencil gift note on front flyleaf dated 1903 presenting the book to J.H. Wilcox from his mother.
Brown full leather, debossed borders and decorations, gilt titles, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. A collection of 64 engravings commissioned by the publishers as illustrations for the works of James Fenimore Cooper. This folio edition is believed to be the first example of an attempt to employ the printing techniques used for bank notes in a published book. Each illustration includes a tissue guard separating it from an explanatory page of text. The engravings were originally released in eight separate portfolios limited to 500 impressions each. Our research locates examples of these individual portfolios, as well as volumes in which all eight have been bound together (as is the case here).
Price: $500.00