Early Lithographed Books: A Study of the Design and Production of Improper Books in the Age of the Hand Press. With a Catalogue

4to (26 cm), 374 pp. Publisher's cloth, gilt-lettered spine and the front cover (spine sunned, edges slightly foxed). "This book is about books produced by lithography in Europe in the age of the hand press. The period it covers corresponds roughly with the first half of the nineteenth century, but since the hand press continued to be used for lithography long after this, even on a commercial basis, I have allowed myself some chronological licence. To my knowledge very little of any consequence has been published about such books by those who wrote on lithographic subjects at the time, and nothing at all since then. This book's main aim, therefore, is to introduce a little-known area of book design and production; but I hope that it will also contribute to our understanding of the overall picture of printing and publishing history." (from the Introduction.) The catalogue includes over 400 items.