Silverpoints by Gray John, First Edition (7 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. No Jacket. 1st Edition. A facsimile reprint of the original 1893 edition, limited to 250 numbered copies (this being #172). Tall 8vo. 38pp. Green cloth featuring a gilt-stamped Charles Ricketts decorations to the upper and lower boards. In fine state. No dust wrapper. A superb copy of this facsimile edition of the author's first notable publication, comprising sixteen original poems and thirteen translations from Verlaine, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Hardcover. Condition: Near fine. Dust Jacket Condition: very good. First edition thus. 38p quarto, A fine copy in a very good dust jacket, "surplus 2 Library of Congress Duplicate" stamped on title page. 1/250 copies printed. Reprints the scarce 1893 edition.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. Cloth lightly rubbed at extremities. Offsetting to front endpaper from contemporary amorial bookplate, rear endpaper offset as well.; Full olive cloth decorated with gilt designs of water and willow leaves by Charles Ricketts. Edition limited to 250 copies of witch this is number 69; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; (40) pages; The first book by the poet and translator John Gray (1866-1934), and one of the most significant literary works of the decadent 1890s and the Aesthetic Movement.

First edition. Narrow octavo. pp xxxviii. Decorated cloth gilt designed by Charles Ricketts. Number 194 of 250 copies. Twenty-eight poems. Hand-made paper. The author's first significant publication and one of the key books of the 1890's. The poems are dedicated variously to Oscar Wilde, Paul Verlaine, C.H. Shannon, Frank Harris, Ernest Dowson, Pierre Louÿs, Ellen Terry, Arthur Chevrillon, Arthur Edmunds et al. At the end are translations of poems by Mallarmé, Rimbaud and Baudelaire.Free endpapers tanned. Faint postage stamp-sized mark to front cover. Very good indeed.

First edition, [one of 250 copies]. 8vo., original green cloth decorated in gilt. London: Elkin Mathews and John Lane at the sign of the Bodley Head, The Walter Pater/Douglas Ainslie copy, inscribed by the latter on the front free endpaper: ?Ex libris Douglas Ainslie (bought 2/- at Clara Pater's sale or rather Osterley's sale of her property 8 New [?] Square Sp. 1922).? A fine association: Silverpoints was heavily influenced by Walter Pater (vide Jerusha McCormack's John Gray: Poet, Dandy, and Priest) and Pater himself lived just long enough to have known it: according to Brocard Sewell (In the Dorian Mode, p. 50) ?Pater and Swinburne praised Silverpoints privately.? The statement of provenance by Ainslie, friend of Wilde and Beardsley, is slightly confusing, and appears to conflate Walter Pater's two sisters Clara (died 1910) and Hester (who died indeed in 1922). According to Billie Andrew Inman's extensive researches, Pater died intestate and his books and manuscripts were inherited by his sisters. They gave some away at the time but the majority remained with them, and on Hester's death in 1922 a tranche was inherited by her friend May Ottley, who in turn bequeathed them to her daughter Constance Ottley, from whom John Sparrow bought a good group in 1972. There is no mention of a sale in 1922.  Unlike most copies of the regular issue, this copy is printed on Spalding handmade paper, crisper and stiffer than the Van Gelder, has two blank leaves between the front free endpaper and the title-page, and the verso of the title-page lacks the printed notice of limitation, positing this as a member of an unidentified class of copies for presentation. Though the gilt is bright and the binding is only very slightly worn at the extremities, there is an obtrusive crease toward the top of both boards, and the boards are somewhat soiled.

First edition, number 116 of 250 copies, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on front free endpaper, "Lady Gregory from John Gray April 1893." Signed or inscribed copies of this key 1890s collection are rare: even the deluxe issue of 25 copies was not signed by Gray, and we have traced no other inscribed copies of Silverpoints in auction records. The connection between John Gray and Lady Gregory is probably the French poet Marc-André Raffalovich (1864-1934) who was Gray's partner. Lady Gregory later participated in a spoof medium session organized by Gray when she appeared as "Lady Celeste" and kept a thimble in her mouth to facilitate a foreign accent. The design and format of the book were of importance in Charles Ricketts's attempts to define a new style of book design. Calling Charles Ricketts "the hero of the art nouveau book", John Russell Taylor writing in The Art Nouveau Book in Britain, identifies the importance of Silverpoints and states "in Silverpoints. he made his one notable contribution in format, evolving for it a curious upright shape based on 'one of those rare Aldus italic volumes with its margins uncut'." This collection of original poetry and adaptations or translations from French contemporaries includes Verlaine, Rimbaud and Mallarme. The original cost of publication was borne by Oscar Wilde. The text was not reprinted during the author's lifetime. Brocard Sewell, writing in Two Friends, notes that "several efforts" were made "to persuade the author to publish a new edition; but he would not agree. Father Gray, as the poet has then become, regretted his early poemes noirs; and whenever he saw an opportunity to buy up and 'immobilise' a copy of the book he did so". This copy has a distinguished provenance. After Lady Gregory's ownership it was acquired by Michael Sadleir (1888-1957), the collector, bibliographer and author. It then formed part of the library of Simon Nowell-Smith (1909-1996), librarian of the London Library and president of the Bibliographical Society, and, later, that of his wife Judith Adams Nowell-Smith. It then formed part of the Oscar Wilde collection of Philip K. Cohen. Simon Nowell-Smith referred to this copy in a contribution to "Bibliographical Notes and Queries" in The Book Collector for Spring 1963. Tall octavo. Original green cloth, boards lettered and decorated in gilt, edges uncut. Bookplates or book labels of Lady Gregory, Michael Sadleir, Simon Nowell-Smith and Judith Nowell-Smith on front pastedown or front free endpaper. Head and foot of spine slightly bumped, corners slightly rubbed, browning to free endpapers, otherwise a near-fine copy which is clean and particularly bright.

First edition. First edition. Narrow octavo. Original green cloth with renowned vertical repeating wavy line and leaf motif on both covers designed by Charles Rickets. Author's first book, Copy #152 OF 250 Copies on Van Gelder handmade paper. Acclaimed as Ricketts' greatest book design and widely considered one of the high-points in fin-de-siËcle book design. Ricketts designs for Silverpoints pre-dated the Vale Press books, and were based on Aldine models, referring to the elongated shape of the book as a "saddle book,'an attribution hearkening back to Persian sources. In 1899, Ricketts commented on the success of the book, "the cover of the "Silverpoints published in art paper has drifted back to me from places where my name is quite unknown on bindings, end-papers, wallpapers, and dress cretonnes.' A fine copy.