The Hundred Best Pictures: A Visit, At Home, To The Picture Galleries Of The World (15 of the 17 'Parts', missing only Part III and XIV)

Arranged and Edited by C. Hubert Letts

Edité par William Ritchie, New York, 1907

A propos de cet article

This is the American Edition. From the title page in Part One: 'Being the Gems from the Galleries of New York, London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Windsor, Paris, Antwerp, Rome, Berlin, Dresden, Turin, Venice, Madrid, Milan, St. Petersburg, and from the leading Private Collections. Compiled from lists suggested by various Artists and Critics.' This is an offering of 15 of the 17 'Parts'. Only Part III an XIV are missing. Most of the parts contain six reproductions. So, the two missing Parts take out twelve. In Part VII two of the reproductions have been removed. In Part XI one has been removed, and in Part XVI one has been removed. So of the original 100 reproductions 84 are present. Happily, they are in excellent condition. The great majority are in near perfect to perfect condition. They are all tipped- in and a small number have a little excess glue or a bit of toning on the thin white margin of the one side where it is affixed. I saw only one that had a little more wear, a good number of tiny white specks, and only one that was detached or loose. The facing text pages contain the title of the painting, the artist, and a piece about the artist and the work. These text pages are, in the main, very clean. I don't recall seeing any very conspicuous soiling or staining. You'll see an occasional edge tear, but none that reach the print or works of art. There is one such tear on the second page of the Index. The title page in Part I has a tiny loss at its top corner. The verso side of the title page has the following language: 'The chosen pictures herein reproduced are from negatives taken direct from the original masterpieces. The process of printing in photogravure, the only process giving perfectly the very touch of the artist's brush. The series includes: Classical Art, Historical, Genre, Sacred, Myth and Legend, Animal, Landscape, Seascape, Portraits and Head Studies.' This page is followed by an Introduction by Mr. Letts. Then comes the four-page Index which lists (alphabetically by the artist's name) Artist, Picture, Collection, and Page number. I counted 75 artists. The stapled bindings are decent. All of the covers are intact/attached, front, spine and rear. In one 'Part' the pages are detached from the covers but attached to one another. And in one Part they are detached from the covers and from one another. There are also occasional instances of one or two pages within a Part being detached, cleanly. There are no markings on any of the pages. There are no attachments of any kind. And no one has written their name or anything else in any of the Parts. There are occasional corner creases and occasional instances of a rough middle edge. The covers are, in the main, in quite nice condition, surprisingly given that The Hundred Best Pictures is well over 100 years old. There is a tear off the top edge of the spine and adjacent front of Part I. And there is a small loss off the middle edge of the front cover of Part VII-- it looks like a burn, and as a result there is a small tan spot off the middle edge of the first three pages, far from the print and the reproductions. There is a thin crease coming down from the top edge of the front cover of Part X, something pressed down against it. The rear covers and a few Parts have a little very thin bit of white paper attached. The covers are remarkably clean, very rare to see a spot of soiling. They have also maintained their original color which, looking at some of the photos of the few other copies for sale, is quite unusual. Some of the smaller reproductions on the front covers show little bit of tanning at their white margins and an occasional tiny bit of wear. That should cover it. Take a look at the photos.

N° de réf. du vendeur 005147

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Hundred Best Pictures: A Visit, At Home, To The Picture Galleries Of The World (15 of the 17 'Parts', missing only Part III and XIV)
• Éditeur: William Ritchie, New York
• Date de parution: 1907
• Reliure: Soft cover
• État de l'article: Very Good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Art
  • Crème de la crème
  • Painting, Painters