Fables of Aesop
illustrated by Edward J. Detmold
25 tipped-in color plates – this 1909 book is regarded as Detmold’s finest piece of work.
Collectible Color Plates: Color Your Shelf
Fables of Aesop
illustrated by Edward J. Detmold
Most people familiar with AbeBooks will have seen the words ‘color plate’ used in association with certain rare book listings. Plates are whole page illustrations printed separately from the text (illustrations printed within the text are called cuts) and naturally color plates feature color illustrations.
To some book collectors, the golden age of color plates had to be the Victorian era where countless books were produced on flora and fauna complete with numerous color illustrations of everything from moths and butterflies to grasses and alpine plants. However, many subjects are addressed in color plate books, including satirical cartoons, sporting scenes, landscapes, costumes, fairy tales and architecture.
The legendary illustrators - Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Kay Nielsen, Edward J. Detmold, Willy Pogany and to a lesser extent N.C. Wyeth - are defined by their color plates, which were produced in eras before improved printing processes enabled true mass production. The production of a book in, for instance, 1820 containing 100 color plates would a major achievement and come at considerable expense to the publisher.
Mounted and tipped-in color plates are plates that have been attached to the page. It is also possible to encounter loose color plates where they are ‘laid-in’ or unattached.
Hand colored plates are particularly collectible because a black and white outline has been printed onto the page and then artists have manually added colors to the printed page. It was simply too expensive to produce books with hand colored plates in large numbers.
Beautiful Rare Books with Color Plates
First Footsteps in East Africa; or, an Exploration of Harar
by Richard F Burton
Four color lithographed plates in this seminal work of Africana.
East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Old Tales from the North
illustrated by Kay Nielsen
Various editions with 25 mounted/tipped in color plates.
Moths and Butterflies of the United States East of the Rocky Mountains
by Sherman F Denton
56 ‘nature printed’ color plates in this limited edition of 500 copies.
The Flowering Plants and Ferns of Great Britain
by Anne Pratt
Various editions, Frederick Warne edition contains more than 300 colored botanical plates.
Tales of Mystery and Imagination
by Edgar Allan Poe & illustrated by Arthur Rackham
A dozen macabre color plates from Rackham in this book from 1935.
The Ship That Sailed to Mars. A Fantasy
by William M Timlin
48 mounted/tipped in color plates in this children’s book from South African artist Timlin.
Parrots in Captivity
by W.T. Greene
Printed in 1884 in three volumes with color plates displaying 81 species.
The History of the Abbey Church of St. Peter’s Westminster, Its Antiquities and Monuments
by R. Ackermann
A celebration of Westminster Abbey, printed for Ackermann in 1812 with 80 colored aquatint plates.
Studer’s Popular Ornithology: The Birds of North America
by Theodore Jasper & Jacob Studer
Famous natural history book with 119 chromolithographs drawn and colored by Jasper.
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings & illustrated
by N.C. Wyeth
14 beautiful full-page color plates – look out for the 770 copies signed by author and illustrator.
Tanglewood Tales
by Nathaniel Hawthorne & illustrated by V.F. Sterrett
Published in 1921 with 10 full page color plates.
Uniform of the Army of the United States Illustrated from 1774 to 1889
by Henry A Ogden
44 large folio color chromolithographic plates prepared by G. H. Buer of New York.
The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
Limited Editions Club edition from 1940, 67 two-color lithographs on zinc plates by Thomas Hart Benton.
Tell Me Why Stories
by C.H. Claudy & illustrated by Norman Rockwell
8 color plates produced by a teenage Norman Rockwell.
Trending to Maine
by Kenneth Roberts & illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
Published in 1938 with 14 color plates plus three pen and ink drawings on title page.
The Illustrated Dictionary of Gardening
edited by George Nicholson
Various editions of this Victorian gem with 20+ chromolithographed color plates and many woodcuts.
Flowers and their Kindred Thoughts
by Mary Ann Bacon
1848, designed by Owen Jones with 15 full page chromolithographic color plates.
The Grammar of Ornament
by Owen Jones
Various editions, first printed in 1868, 100 color plates in this guide to good architectural form & color.
Types of Floral Mechanism
from Arthur Harry Church
39 color plates in this 1908 book showing watercolors of dissected flowers.
Favourite Flowers of Garden and Greenhouse
by Edward Step
316 chromolithographed plates across four volumes, edited by William Watson of Kew Gardens.
The Book of the Bench
by Spy
39 mounted/tipped-in color plates of cartoons illustrating the legal profession.
The Mary Frances Sewing Book or Adventures Among the Thimble People
by Jane Eayre Fryer
1913, a small number of color plates plus 33 sewing patterns for dolls.
Our Darlings: The Children’s Treasury of Pictures and Stories
edited by Dr. Barnardo
Various editions of this often-reprinted classic containing a varying number of color plates.
A Natural History of British Grasses
by E.J. Lowe
74 color plates by the celebrated English botanist Edward Joseph Lowe (1825-1900).
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