The Art of Garnishing Churches at Christmas and Other Times; A Manual of Directions Edited and Re-Written by the Rev. Ernest Geldart
London: Cox Sons, Buckley & Co., 1882. First edition. Tall thin octavo (10 inches tall), original decorated red cloth, panels stamped in black and blind, trade advertisments endpapers, all edges red. Spine worn, faint soiling to boards, corners bumped. Very good indeed. Item #1550
"MAKE THE SANCTUARY OF GOD EACH HOLY TIDE THAT COMES MORE GLORIOUS"
First Ernest Geldart edition of this illustrated manual on the Art of Church Decoration—the "best edition" of this practical guide in answer to the question: "How Shall We Decorate?" Illustrated with a frontispiece and 25 plates, this is the first extra-illustrated copy we have seen with the insertion of 14 additional unnumbered plates (each with its own price list) detailing emblems and symbols, wreaths, devices, banners, as well as architectu
ral decorations.
The Art of Garnishing Churches was first published in three editions between 1868 and 1871. With the publisher's brief original Preface to the First Edition, acknowledging an aesthetic debate: "A great diversity of opinion prevails as to the proper limits of Ecclesiastical Decoration; but the Author has entirely abstained from entering into that controversy" ("Edward Young Cox / October 1868").
A decade later, the Rev. Ernest Geldart (later known as the most distinguished of the "priestarchitects") was given the manuscript by the publisher to edit and revise "with my hands free." Geldart arranged the text as follows: Chapter I. Introductory, Chapter II. General Principles, Chapter III. IV. V. VI. VII. The Making of Wreaths, Devices, Banners, Diapers, Temporary Screens, Chapter VIII. Texts: Their Choice and Execution, Chapter IX. Emblems and Symbols, Chapter X. Structural Decorations, Chapter XI. A Concise List of Materials.
This edition was splendidly illustrated with a frontispiece (by James Brooks)—"All Saints Church Perry Street North Fleet"—and 25 black-and-white plates, numbered I—XXV and gathered after the text. Geldart's Preface to the Present Book (dated, "Little Braxted Rectory, / Witman, / Trinity-tide, 1882") cautions: "The result is far from perfect, but I have tried to do my best, and if you, my reader, will do the same, you will improve upon it, and make the Sanctuary of God each holy tide that comes 'More Glorious.'" Complete with the Original Corrigenda leaf tipped-in after the title page. A second Geldart edition appeared in 1884.
Price: $250.00