Tales Mystery Imagination by Poe, Harry Clarke, Signed (4 results)

Full Vellum. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Harry Clarke (illustrator). Limited Edition. 382 pp. Number 32 of 170 deluxe limited edition signed by illustrator Harry Clarke on limitations page. Full vellum with gilt design and rules on front, gilt lettering on spine. Top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Frontispiece and 23 full-page black and white, half-tone illustrations by Clarke, all with tissue guards. Title page vignette and head and tail pieces throughout by Clarke. Twenty-nine tales including "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Murders in the Rue Morge," "The Mystery of Marie Roget," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Gold Bug." Boards are slightly bowed, extremities lightly scuffed, head of spine bumped, and some soil spots on front. Vellum is wrinkled on spine and lower front joint. End pages foxed. Binding is very secure. Text block is very clean and tight throughout. Poe inspired modern mystery, science fiction and horror. Clarke's illustrations perfectly capture the macabre and the beautiful in the text. His work is compared to Aubrey Beardsley, Kay Nielson and Edmund Dulac. A stunning pairing of the arts of literature and illustration. A handsome copy of an extremely scarce and impressive work. Size: Thick Quarto. Signed by Illustrator.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good plus. Clarke, Harry (illustrator). Limited edition. #151 of 170 copies signed and numbered by Harry Clarke. 4to full vellum, 24 full page black and white plates with tissue guards. This was before the color plates were added to later editionsthis is the only signed limited of all the editions. Quite scarce today. Gilt spine titles and small gilt illustration on the front cover, bordered by a design of chains & hearts all in gilt. Top edge gilt. The vellum is separating from boards at top of pastedown endpapers, very slightly in front, about 2 1/2 inches in rear. Modest bowing to boards and a little unevenness to the spine. Modest darkening to covers. Without previous ownership markings. No foxing, interior pages very clean. A solid copy of the scarcest of all Clarke titles and the most reprinted of them all, proving its popularity over the last 100 years. Signed by Clarke.

First Clarke edition, deluxe signed limited issue, number 22 of 170 copies signed by the illustrator and specially bound in full vellum. This is a notably bright copy. Harry Clarke (1889-1931) was a key figure in the Irish arts and crafts movement, hailed by W. B. Yeats as Ireland's greatest stained-glass artist and praised by George Russell ("AE") as "one of the strangest geniuses of his time". His profoundly weird illustrations for Poe's stories made his reputation as a book artist. "More H. R. Gieger's Alien than Arthur Rackham" (Hoare), his haunting yet elegant art nouveau illustrations are ideal counterpoints to Poe's disturbing tales. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction, 1983, p. 406. Philip Hoare, "Alien spaceship, Hammer horror? The pulsating visions of Harry Clarke", The Guardian, 11 April 2019. Large quarto. Frontispiece and 23 plates in black and with tissue guards, title page vignette, head- and tailpieces, all by Clarke. Original vellum, spine lettered in gilt, front cover with design in gilt within ruled border, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Boards slightly bowed and soiled as often, inner hinges cracked but firm, endmatter foxed else internally very bright: a very good copy.

Vellum. Condition: Near Fine. Harry Clarke (illustrator). 1st of This Edition. Stout Quarto. Limited deluxe edition of only 170 copies, signed and numbered on the limitation page by Harry Clarke, this being #12. 24 full-page halftone illustrations with tissue guards, plus head and tail pieces. 382 pages bound in full vellum with bright gilt decoration to cover, gilt spine lettering, top edge gilt, others deckled. A magnificent, collectible copy with interior exceptionally clean and crisp, and with the vellum clean and unmarked. A beautiful, fresh copy of a scarce item.