Fireworks, Signed (1 results)

London: Daniel O'Connor. 1922. Royal 8vo. Original orange cloth, blocked in red to the upper board with a design depicting a number of fireworks, pictorial dust jacket, pictorial endpapers; pp. xv, [i], 197, [1], illustrated with 6 coloured Japanese prints (produced in Japan) and 30 monochrome plates, including frontispiece, reproducing engravings and broadsheets, including 1 folding, errata slip present, tipped-in to p.1; a bright presentation copy, inscribed and flat-signed by the author on title-page.Very scarce first edition of Brock's first book, particularly difficult to find in the dust jacket and signed. The author 'apologizes' for this book in the introduction: 'My excuse for adding another volume to the literature of the art is that I am of the eighth generation of a family of pyrotechnists, whose work, I venture to claim, has not been without its effect. If I succeed in interesting, and in some degree enlightening, my readers, I shall feel I have not written in vain; if I fail, I shall know it is not in my choice of subject but in my capacity for dealing with it. Alan St. Hill BROCK. - Sutton, August, 1922'. Brock's business had been founded in Islington in 1698 by John Brock as the oldest British fireworks manufacturer. They are still trading, but not associated with the Brock family. Apart from the English Royals, among their clients were the Kings of Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Zululand, the Sultans of Morocco, Turkey and Zanzibar, the Shahs of Persia, Czars and Czarinas of Russia, Emperors and Empresses of Germany and Brazil.