Advert Description
Two large volumes printed in Austria and published by The Phaidon Press of Vienna in the early to mid 1930s. The company moved to London in 1937 to avoid the effects of the impending Nazi annexation of the country. The books are now about ninety years old.
The cloth bound volumes measure 27.5 by 36cm / 10¾ x 14¼ ins and each is about 26mm / 1 inch thick. “The Impressionists” has a Foreword by Wilhelm Uhde and “Cézanne” by Fritz Novotny. The text is all in English. There are many monochrome prints throughout both books plus colour plates attached by a paste line at the top edge. The colour plates could be removed for framing, but this would seriously detract from the value of the books. I have attached photo’s of two of the colour plates, chosen at random.
The books are complete but both of them would benefit from a careful cleaning of the covers. The spine of “The Impressionists” is partially detached on the front edge and needs to be glued back in place.
The books have an interesting history. They were originally owned by an artist by the name of H Brooks who lived, appropriately, in Brook Street, Luton. His name and address is written in pencil inside the front cover of one of the books. He passed them on to Charles Exeter Devereux Crombie who was the artist famous for the “Rules of Golf” cartoons commissioned by the Perrier mineral water company in 1906, and the subsequent “Rules of Cricket”, plus numerous other artwork. Crombie, in turn, gave the books to the artist, Richard Fisher, in the late fifties or early sixties. We inherited them when we bought Richard Fisher’s house and studio in Letchworth Garden City in 1976.
If I pack them in protective cardboard the weight of both books will be about 4.3 kilos and will cost £5.99 to post. One book on its own will cost £4.49 postage. I will sell each book for £18 or both of them for £29 or offer, and include packaging and postage. PayPal accepted.