Joseph Cundall. A Victorian Publisher. Notes on His Life and a Check-list of His Books.

(Cundall, Joseph) - McLean, Ruari

About this Item

Dollar (Scotland); Private Libraries Association, 1976. 4:o. [viii] + 96 pp. Illustrated. Publisher s red cloth with gilt title on spine, pictorial dustjacket. Red topr edge. Very fine. "Joseph Cundall was notable as a publisher, editor, book-designer, and pioneer photographer. Born in 1818, he was trained as a printer but became a publisher in his early twenties, and produced many of the most attractive popular illustrated books of the 1850 s and 1860 s. His career as a photographer was also important, culminating in 1871 when the British Government sent him to Bayeux to organize the first photographic record of the famous tapestry. In 1843, at the age of 25, Cundall became publisher of the Home Treasury series of children s books, conceived and edited by Henry Cole. In the opinion of Ruari McLean these are still the most beautifully designed children s books ever made. But Cundall became bankrupt around 1849, and thereafter worked for other publishers on a freelance basis, mostly anonymously. For this reason his achievement has never been adequately recognized. In this volume, Ruari McLean provides for the first time a list of works published, edited, written, or designed by Cundall, and prefaces it with an account of Cundall s life, as fas as it has been possible to discover it from the very few available documents surviving in various branches of the Cundall family, and from the books themselves." (front flap text). Seller Inventory # 9710

Bibliographic Details

Title: Joseph Cundall. A Victorian Publisher. Notes...

Binding: Hardcover

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included