Stained Glass as an Art
London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1896. First edition. Quarto (10 1/2 inches tall), full navy moroccco, gilt spine and boards, marbled endpapers, uncut. Bookplate, very slight wear to corners and spine ends, scattered foxing to text but plates clean. A near-fine copy. Item #1795
"THE ONE GOLDEN RULE IS TO LET OUR WORK BE THE FULLEST EXPRESSION OF OUR OWN GENUINE THOUGHT AND FEELING, IN THE BEST LANGUAGE AT OUR COMMAND"
First edition of Henry Holiday's essay on Stained Glass as an Art—beautifully illustrated with the author's own designs, along with additional plates after Edward Burne-Jones and William Blake Richmond. Custom-bound in full morocco leather, this copy comes from the library of W.A. Foyle at Beeleigh Abbey—with his distinctive gilt morocco bookplate inside the front board.
Best-known for his illustrations for Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876), Holiday's work as a painter and as a leading stained-glass designer was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. Holiday's Preface expresses "my sincere and cordial thanks to my friends Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Mr. William Blake Richmond, for their courtesy in allowing me to reproduce some of their designs." Holiday's own illustrations include in-text figures and seven charming large historiated initials. The plates include a chromolithograph folding frontispiece, a second folding plate, and 19 other collotype plates, including a trio of stunning window designs after Edward Burne-Jones for The Nativity (Fig. 59), The Ascension (Fig. 60), and The Crucifixion (Fig. 61).
"Addressed mainly to those who have cultivated their perceptive faculties" but are still "bewildered by uncertainty," Holiday's essay Introductory concludes: "I have endeavored to divine correctly the difficulties which beset the educated outsider who desires to look at stained glass intelligently." Stressing the individuality of the art form, Holiday brings his own subjective artistic expression to a detailed exploration of the historical evolution and stylistic changes in the use of Stained Glass. Part I. Material and Technique, Part II. The Artistic Possibilities Inherent in Stained Glass, III. The Artistic Possibilities of Stained Glass, Considered. With a two-part Appendix. Note I: American Glass (on John Lafarge) and Note II: Opus Sectile (Paque Stained Glass) and an Index. William A. Foyle, who co-founded Foyles Bookshop alongside his brother Gilbert in 1903. He purchased Beeleigh Abbey during the Second World War, a twelfth century monastery, where he housed his personal library, one the largest private libraries in England.
Price: $850.00