The Great Chalice of Antioch: On Which Are Depicted in Sculpture the Earliest Known Portraits of Christ, Apostles and Evangelists. 2-vol. set (Complete)

New York: Kouchakji Fréres, 1923. Limited first edition. Hardcover. vg- to vg+. 1/1000. Elephant Folio (18 1/4 x 15"). 194pp (Text) + 60 leaves of plates. Uncut. Original black morocco over gilt-stamped olive cloth, with gold lettering and tooling to spines. Top edge gilt. Decorative headpieces and initials.

This is numbered copy #154 of the beautifully produced limited edition of 1000, and was printed on uncut cotton rag paper, by Crane and Co. An inscribed and signed five line note by the author is laid in to volume 1. Foreword by famed art historian Josef Strzygowski. The book was designed and decorated by illustrator and graphic artist Edward B. Edwards. The publication is a comprehensive academic and photographic study of the Chalice of Antioch, including 60 highly detailed plates of b/w photogravure and copper plate engravings.

The Chalice was said to be one of the contenders to be the authentic Holy Chalice of Christ, when it was discovered in Antioch, in 1910. Study of the object in the intervening years, has since ruled out this possibility. It is however, still considered one of the more acclaimed and earliest surviving Christian relics, dating from the early 5th century. Vol.1 has a detailed scholarly analysis of the Chalice from comparative historical, artistic, and technical perspectives, commenting on all aspects of the object. The end of the first volume contains 2 plates of diagrams, one is a dynamic analysis of the object's structure and the second is a visual study of the "occulted spirals" present in the faces on the Chalice. Vol.2 contains 60 plates of illustrations (some as large as 13.5" x 8.5"), 48 of which are reproduced in photogravure after photographs, by the author & Fahim Kouchakji. The other 12 are copper plate engravings by Margaret West Kinney (the wife of Troy Kinney), who has rendered the original three-dimensional figures of Jesus and the Apostles on the Chalice, into two-dimensional portrait images. The plates dissect nearly every minute physical detail of the piece. Each plate has a tissue guard with printed text in black, identifying the contents.

Bindings with light abrasions and rubbing to the covers and corners of the cloth. Minor rubbing to hinges of spines. Interiors with minor smudges and sporadic minor foxing to a few pages. Light age toning to a few pages. All images unaffected. Binding in very good-, interior in very good+ condition.