High Tea Infused by Emett

London: Faber & Faber. Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. 1950. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Publisher's orange cloth, spine lettered and cover design by the author, both printed in red. An attractive copy in a color pictorial dust jacket with a drawing by the author reproduced on the front panel -- front flap price clipped. The dust jacket has minor chipping along the bottom edge of the rear panel, a tiny ding to the center of the fore-edge fold at the front flap, and is missing the bottom half inch of the spine -- (with a corresponding faded portion to the cloth of the spine. But a clean, tight and appealing copy. The author / artist was best known for publishing drawings on a regular basis in Punch, especially from 1939 until the 1950s. His drawings frequently feature elaborate and fanciful machines. During his later career, when his drawings appeared less frequently in 'Punch' -- Emett designed and built several mechanisms which display the same whimsy as his best drawings. Invariably, as a class, he insisted on called these constructions "things." Also, nearly as invariably, he gave them fanciful names. As examples, Emett made two models of his "Featherstone-Kite Openwork Basketweave Mark Two Gentleman’s Flying Machine" -- [one is on display in the Mid-America Science Museum in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which has four of Emett's "things"]. Emett will be remembered for designing the elaborate inventions of Dick Van Dyke's role in the film 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' -- Caractacus Potts. .