THE RENAISSANCE: STUDIES IN ART AND POETRY by PATER, WALTER - 1893

London and New York: Macmillan and Co, 1893. Fourth Edition. This is an important study in the field of art history, offered here in a rarely encountered and very pleasing binding by one of the most distinctive designers of the period. "The Renaissance" had a major influence on the study of art and on the aesthetic movement: Oscar Wilde called it his "golden book." Pater (1839-94) was a gentle, lifelong bachelor who lived with his two sisters in Oxford, where he tutored pupils, but although he was an unusually shy and retiring academic, he wrote about his ideal of the aesthetic life and his love for beauty in such passionate and polished prose that his writings developed a significant following that included the Pre-Raphaelites. Britannica says that "at the time of his death Pater exercised a remarkable and a growing influence among that necessarily restricted class of persons who have themselves something of his own love for beauty and the beautiful phrase." Our geometrical binding is similar to item #267 in Maggs Catalogue 1212, a binding also designed by Ricketts, executed by Zaehnsdorf, and covering a Vale Press book. As the catalogue indicates, "Ricketts was a remarkable designer in a number of different fields. Although he had no training in bookbinding, . . . He [briefly] advertised his services designing bindings for clients to be executed by Riviere, but for the most part his special bindings are found on copies of his own Vale Press books. It is not clear how many copies of each he had bound, either by Zaehnsdorf or Riviere, but it seems likely that [the] number was very limited and they were probably only done to order for special customers." A review of the main binding reference works uncovers just eight other bindings designed by Ricketts, six in the British Library. There is no binder's stamp here to indicate who executed the binding to Ricketts' design, but it was obviously a highly skilled craftsman from a top-flight firm. The "special customer" in this case was Laurence W. Hodson, son of a prosperous brewer, noted patron of the arts, and collector of pre-Raphaelite paintings. He commissioned the last wallpaper designed by his acquaintance William Morris, a pattern called "Compton" after Hodson's family seat.. 206 x 137 mm. (8 1/8 x 5 3/8"). xvi, 253, [1] pp. Fourth Edition. STRIKING CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND CRAFTS STYLE WHITE PIGSKIN, designed by Charles Ricketts (stamp-signed with the "HR" monogram [for "Hacon and Ricketts"] on rear turn-in), covers blind-tooled in a geometric pattern resembling a window, with blind-stamped leaves decorating the top and bottom panel and gilt pomegranates and anular dots in corners of the "panes," raised bands, spine panels tooled with vertical lines and with gilt pomegranate stamp, blind-tooled titling at head, gilt initials "L. H." and "V. P." at foot, blind-ruled turn-ins, edges untrimmed. In a folding cloth box. Title vignette printed in red. Front pastedown with book label of Laurence W. Hodson of Compton Hall, Wolverhampton (see below). Boards a little splayed, minor soiling to lower cover, just a breath of rubbing to extremities, mild foxing to opening leaves, but still A FINE COPY--internally clean, fresh, and bright, and in an extremely pleasing custom binding with only trivial imperfections. This is an important study in the field of art history, offered here in a rarely encountered and very pleasing binding by one of the most distinctive designers of the period. "The Renaissance" had a major influence on the study of art and on the aesthetic movement: Oscar Wilde called it his "golden book." Pater (1839-94) was a gentle, lifelong bachelor who lived with his two sisters in Oxford, where he tutored pupils, but although he was an unusually shy and retiring academic, he wrote about his ideal of the aesthetic life and his love for beauty in such passionate and polished prose that his writings developed a significant following that included the Pre-Raphaelites. Britannica says that "at the time of his death Pater exercised a remarkable and a growing influence among that necessarily restricted class of persons who have themselves something of his own love for beauty and the beautiful phrase." Our geometrical binding is similar to item #267 in Maggs Catalogue 1212, a binding also designed by Ricketts, executed by Zaehnsdorf, and covering a Vale Press book. As the catalogue indicates, "Ricketts was a remarkable designer in a number of different fields. Although he had no training in bookbinding, . . . He [briefly] advertised his services designing bindings for clients to be executed by Riviere, but for the most part his special bindings are found on copies of his own Vale Press books. It is not clear how many copies of each he had bound, either by Zaehnsdorf or Riviere, but it seems likely that [the] number was very limited and they were probably only done to order for special customers." A review of the main binding reference works uncovers just eight other bindings designed by Ricketts, six in the British Library. There is no binder's stamp here to indicate who executed the binding to Ricketts' design, but it was obviously a highly skilled craftsman from a top-flight firm. The "special customer" in this case was Laurence W. Hodson, son of a prosperous brewer, noted patron of the arts, and collector of pre-Raphaelite paintings. He commissioned the last wallpaper designed by his acquaintance William Morris, a pattern called "Compton" after Hodson's family seat.