1wcarter
Salome, Oscar Wilde – HERITAGE PRESS 1945
A PICTORIAL REVIEW
Introduction from Holbrook Jackson
The Lord Alfred Douglas translation.
Frontispiece and 5 colour drawings plus line drawing tailpiece by Valenti Angelo..
Artwork decorated and hand-illuminated with gold.
Book design by Valenti Angelo.
Patterned deep yellow page edges, each page a different pattern.
French-folded pages.
Bound in black cloth cover made by Interlaken Mills in Arkwright, RI with a blocked illustrative cover indentation and a gold stamped title.
The black cloth binding was purchased by the Macy companies before WW II and sat in warehouses until its use in Salome.
Garamond Bold text.
Plain black slipcase.
26.6x16.2cm.
51 pages
Sandglass pamphlet enclosed.
Cost to me US$37
Gorgeously decorated yellow pages that have been specially cut (the top is uncut, giving each page added thickness), and EVERY single page in this book has an amazing border, all done by Valenti Angelo himself, boldly coloured in a way that suits the page background, too. A masterwork.
Side lit to show blocked cover impression.
Artificially lightened to show blocked cover impression.
Endpapers
Showing French-fold pages
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the this series can be viewed here.
A PICTORIAL REVIEW
Introduction from Holbrook Jackson
The Lord Alfred Douglas translation.
Frontispiece and 5 colour drawings plus line drawing tailpiece by Valenti Angelo..
Artwork decorated and hand-illuminated with gold.
Book design by Valenti Angelo.
Patterned deep yellow page edges, each page a different pattern.
French-folded pages.
Bound in black cloth cover made by Interlaken Mills in Arkwright, RI with a blocked illustrative cover indentation and a gold stamped title.
The black cloth binding was purchased by the Macy companies before WW II and sat in warehouses until its use in Salome.
Garamond Bold text.
Plain black slipcase.
26.6x16.2cm.
51 pages
Sandglass pamphlet enclosed.
Cost to me US$37
Gorgeously decorated yellow pages that have been specially cut (the top is uncut, giving each page added thickness), and EVERY single page in this book has an amazing border, all done by Valenti Angelo himself, boldly coloured in a way that suits the page background, too. A masterwork.
Side lit to show blocked cover impression.
Artificially lightened to show blocked cover impression.
Endpapers
Showing French-fold pages
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the this series can be viewed here.
3dlphcoracl
>1 wcarter:
Simply beautiful.
Note that the Heritage Press' parent, the Limited Editions Club, did three of these small (6.25 x 4.25 inches) books with similar style and Valenti Angelo hand illumination. They are little treasures and are well worth looking for:
1. The Kasidah of Haji Abdu el Yezdi
2. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
3. Vathek: An Arabian Tale
Simply beautiful.
Note that the Heritage Press' parent, the Limited Editions Club, did three of these small (6.25 x 4.25 inches) books with similar style and Valenti Angelo hand illumination. They are little treasures and are well worth looking for:
1. The Kasidah of Haji Abdu el Yezdi
2. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
3. Vathek: An Arabian Tale
4Glacierman
I have this lovely book as well as the later Heritage reprint, which is in all ways inferior to this one.
>3 dlphcoracl: I have #s 2 & 3 in your list and am hunting for #1 at a price I can afford. Lovely little gems, indeed.
>3 dlphcoracl: I have #s 2 & 3 in your list and am hunting for #1 at a price I can afford. Lovely little gems, indeed.
5dlphcoracl
>1 wcarter:
As an aside, Valenti Angelo did a precursor of Salome for the Grabhorn Press in 1927, illustrating a beautiful edition with woodcut marginal designs and a woodcut illustration for the frontispiece. Limitation was 195 copies.
As an aside, Valenti Angelo did a precursor of Salome for the Grabhorn Press in 1927, illustrating a beautiful edition with woodcut marginal designs and a woodcut illustration for the frontispiece. Limitation was 195 copies.
6ultrarightist
>5 dlphcoracl: Which edition do you prefer?
7kronnevik
>3 dlphcoracl: To this list I think you can add the LEC Psalms (this is the only one I have though I'm keeping an eye out for the ones you list). It's somewhat out of character with the other three but bound similarly and housed in a black chamise and slipcase.
Similar in size and style to the HP Salome is Song of Songs, originally in red leather but later black cloth.
Similar in size and style to the HP Salome is Song of Songs, originally in red leather but later black cloth.
8dlphcoracl
>6 ultrarightist:
Apples vs. oranges. The books are entirely different.
The Grabhorn edition is a full-size quarto book and it is printed letterpress. Because of their elaborate borders the text in the Heritage edition is probably not. The books are so different in size and style that a direct comparison is meaningless. This is an excellent argument for owning both of them - a delightful miniature with elaborate page borders and gold illumination and a quarto-sized book with superb letterpress work and beautiful frontispiece and woodcut marginal decorations.
Take your pick.
frontispiece:
Last page with colophon:
Apples vs. oranges. The books are entirely different.
The Grabhorn edition is a full-size quarto book and it is printed letterpress. Because of their elaborate borders the text in the Heritage edition is probably not. The books are so different in size and style that a direct comparison is meaningless. This is an excellent argument for owning both of them - a delightful miniature with elaborate page borders and gold illumination and a quarto-sized book with superb letterpress work and beautiful frontispiece and woodcut marginal decorations.
Take your pick.
frontispiece:
Last page with colophon:
9ultrarightist
>8 dlphcoracl: As always, thank you for your feedback and the ever-ready pictures. One is indeed tempted to collect both.
10BuzzBuzzard
>1 wcarter: I don’t think Salome herself coloured any borders in this book :-)
The biggest regret for me with this edition is the paper. I have owned multiple copies of the similarly designed Heritage Press Song of Solomon. The limited 1935 edition as well as some of the later reprints are on a gorgeous paper. I don’t remember if I have read somewhere what the paper indeed is but as far as I can tell it is Japanese paper similar to what was used in the LEC Rubaiyat. Perhaps it is identical because both were published in 1935. The nicer paper makes so much difference!
The biggest regret for me with this edition is the paper. I have owned multiple copies of the similarly designed Heritage Press Song of Solomon. The limited 1935 edition as well as some of the later reprints are on a gorgeous paper. I don’t remember if I have read somewhere what the paper indeed is but as far as I can tell it is Japanese paper similar to what was used in the LEC Rubaiyat. Perhaps it is identical because both were published in 1935. The nicer paper makes so much difference!
12ultrarightist
>11 wcarter: Now you can fix Valenti's pronoun. :-)
13wcarter
>12 ultrarightist:
And here I was, blithely believing that he was a she.
Also corrected.
I wonder if there is any trend in the way male and female artists depict the nude figures of men and women?
And here I was, blithely believing that he was a she.
Also corrected.
I wonder if there is any trend in the way male and female artists depict the nude figures of men and women?
14ultrarightist
>13 wcarter: An interesting question, to which I do not know the answer.
The man who runs the rare & antiquarian section of a bookstore I frequent knew Valenti Angelo. Apparently, he was a regular customer at the bookstore. Whenever he visited, Valenti would ask him if he had obtained any books since his last visit that he had illustrated. He was always delighted when he answered in the affirmative, and would peruse the book with his illustrations.
The man who runs the rare & antiquarian section of a bookstore I frequent knew Valenti Angelo. Apparently, he was a regular customer at the bookstore. Whenever he visited, Valenti would ask him if he had obtained any books since his last visit that he had illustrated. He was always delighted when he answered in the affirmative, and would peruse the book with his illustrations.
15gmacaree
>8 dlphcoracl: Strikingly reminiscent of Dorothy and Lewis Allen's work
16dlphcoracl
>15 gmacaree:
Excellent observation. Very much so. However, this very early Grabhorn Press book predates the true start of the Allens' remarkable careers (when they ceased doing commission work for the Book Club of California and decided to start their own press in 1957) by thirty years!
Excellent observation. Very much so. However, this very early Grabhorn Press book predates the true start of the Allens' remarkable careers (when they ceased doing commission work for the Book Club of California and decided to start their own press in 1957) by thirty years!
