Limner Luke Pseud (2 results)

Small square 4to. Front. & vignette title with red & blue lettering coloured, plates with occasional light dusting or marking. Lacks leading f.e.p. Orig. tan pictorial cloth, lettered in blue & red; sl. rubbing to head & tail of spine, a little dulled. Small booklabel of Robin de Beaumont. A rare early work by John Leighton, featuring drawings and descriptions of 24 London tradespeople and street-hawkers, each portrayed against the backdrop of a well-known London landmark which is also described.

FIRST EDITION, in two parts. Oblong 8vo. Two parts, both with eight uncoloured lithographs; sl. spotted. Loose in orig. pale orange pictorial printed paper wrappers; sl. dusted & with some wear to spine, otherwise a nice set of a very rare work. OCLC records two copies in the UK, at the BL and the V&A (Part I only) and three copies in North America, at Connecticut, Georgetown and San Francisco Public library (Part I only). The subject matter concerns the rapacious accumulation of wealth by any means, followed by the squandering of that wealth with selfish abandon. This may have been too close to mid-Victorian sensibilities, which did not endear the work to buyers, resulting in its scarcity today. There is some doubt over the date of the work. Although the first notice of it appears in January 1851, a miniature bank note in the top left of the upper wrapper has the date 1848 crossed through, leading to confusion about the gestation of the publication. There was a very long review of the work in the Morning Advertiser of Saturday 18 January 1851, indeed so long and detailed that it may have been written by Leighton as a puff, but more probably by The Advertiser's James Grant, a theologian of extreme Calvinist views who would have strongly approved of the publication. Regardless of the writer's identity, the review is fairly emphatic as to the work's merit: 'The two fasciculi of etchings [actually lithographs], which form the subject of this notice, deserve more than a passing glance. Each. plate has its moral lesson each presents a study, and, under the guise of a refined species of caricature, gives, sadly and solemnly, a warning against the indulgence of selfishness, either in hoarding or prodigalityfor here, also, the extremes meet'. Twyman goes on to describe every illustration concluding that 'Luke Limner's inscriptions on each plate, as well as his pencillings are such as evince observation, tact, judgment, good intention, and the best application of satire.' See Michael Twyman Early Lithographic Books, Private Libraries Association 1990. John Leighton, 1822-1912, was an artist and binder best known for his book illustrations and cover designs. His illustrations, often in an early comic strip layout with multiple images accompanied by captions, are a miracle of detail, carefully and neatly crafted. 'Shortly after the first edition of Lear's Book of Nonsense was published, John Leighton, using his pseudonym Luke Limner Esq., produced at least four small landscape-format picture books, three of which were published in London by David Bogue. The four are: The Ancient Story of the Old Dame and Her Pig; Comic Art-manufactures; London Out of Town, or the adventures of the Browns at the sea side; and The Rejected Contributions to the Great Exhibition. Copies of the second and last of these little books are bound up together in the Victoria & Albert Muséum Library and have the following manuscript inscription: '2 Brochures published in the dark ages of art about 1848 & 51 / Plates very much injured a few copies printed off prior to destroying them'. Michael Twyman notes that Leighton produced four early works and seemingly the plates were damaged for some or all of these through bad storage and so may account for the work's scarcity. Maybe the work only had a transient interest to contemporary buyers for on the 17th December 1851 Hodgson's held an auction of various stock, chiefly belonging to the publisher Bogue which shows he still had 820 copies on hand, probably still in sheets. That no copy with an overprint has been recorded may indicate they failed to find a buyer and were quite probably disposed of.