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VG-/None. First edition, 1st printing, Deluxe large paper edition. Navy blue cloth boards with beveled edges, title stamped in gilt on spine. TEG, other edges uncut. This copy has a large (13" x 10") ornate design stamped on the front cover that has gilt and silver flowers in a silver cobweb centered in the upper LH corner, the title and the author's name also stamped in gilt, all this framed within 2 gilt rules. Copyright 1886, no other dates. The only bibliographical reference found about this book is Helen Card's catalog #4 (which offered a massive near complete Howard Pyle collection). She noted 2 editions of this book were published in 1886, one a folio size 'illustrated by Greenaway, Pyle, Joseph Pennell . . . The plates printed by hand in color on india paper and bound in vellum cloth. Unrecorded by either Morse-Brinckle [standard Pyle bibliography] or Theodore Bolton," the other an Octavo edition with illustrations printed from wood engravings. She also notes the 1891 Thaxter 4to book 'Verses" is a reprint of the 1886 'Idyls and Pastorals' edition. The Helen Card catalog did offer a copy of the 1891 'Verses' edition, but the 1886 printings were scarce enough it had no copies. Lacking other bibliographical references or other copies to compare, one must regard the deluxe folio size first edition of this book as very scarce - while not in vellum, this is clearly the deluxe folio edition noted by her. The most attractive feature of this particular copy is probably the front cover with its elegant design apparently repeated on the octavo and 4to editions but in nowhere near as large a size - the front cover of this copy can be graded near fine. But alas there is a downside to this remarkable find - the paper is very prone to foxing, and the book was also at one time was in contact with moisture. The result is that except for the TEG, the paper edges are foxed brown, many pages have substantial foxing, and all plates have foxing around the edges (although the images themselves are in general not foxed). There is a faint water stain to the lower RH of most pages (but not in the same place!), and there was a water in contact with half the back cover (that damage now has been conserved and touched up and thus no longer detracts from the book's external appearance). The binding of this copy was weak (no doubt all copies have this problem since the book is so heavy), but it has now been strengthened by a professional restorer who replaced it with one of matching colors while retaining and laying on the original cloth so expertly it is not noticeable. New endpapers were also added, but otherwise everything else is original and it is now an attractive looking book. The interior illustrations include 1 by Howard Pyle, 2 by Thaxter friend Childe Hassam, an unusual painting by Kate Greenaway of a young girl all bundled up for Thaxter's 'Little Brown Maiden' poem, a Civil War related image (by T. W. Wood) of 2 young black girls for Thaxter's 'Connoisseurs', a Joseph Pennell pen & ink for 'A Venetian Boat Scene', and many other period prints. One of the lesser plates is lacking (#19 (by Mrs. L. B. Humphrey), but whether it was omitted, never published or removed is not clear without comparison to another copy. No doubt an interesting item for the completist collector of Thaxter, Pyle, Hassam. Greenaway, art nouveau or perhaps some other interest. TO SEE MORE PICTURES AND ADDITIONAL SPECIAL ITEMS, VISIT OUR BOOKSELLER's HOMEPAGE. N° de réf. du vendeur 00435
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