Whitbread Library Set Comprises Whitbreads by Whitbread (1 results)

11 vols., 8vo., First Edition, with very numerous coloured, tinted and monochrome illustrations (many full-page) throughout, some mild offsetting from fold-ins to free endpapers, one or two volumes with neat signatures on endpapers; original series bnding of pictorial boards, a very good, bright, clean set in dustwrapper, a few wrappers chipped at heads of backstrips. LOOSELY INSERTED ARE 1)PUBLISHER'S PRINTED PROSPECTUS FOR THE SERIES; 2) T.L.s. FROM W. H. WHITBREAD, CHAIRMAN. The set comprises 1: Whitbread's Brewery (1947); 2: Your Local (1947); 3: Inn-Signia (1948); 4: The Brewer's Art (1948); 5: Whitbread Craftsmen (1948); 6: Inns of Kent (1948); 7: Inns of Sport; (1949) 8: Receipts and Relishes (1950); 9: Your Club (1950); 10: Inn Crafts and Furnishings (1950); 11: Word for Word (1953). Produced to promote the famous brewery, its products and its houses, the Whitbread Library is a tribute to a passed age of ale, 'the local' and the English countryside which must have seemed idyllic in the aftermath of WWII. Covering all aspects of the art and craft of brewing and related activities, the series was produced partly in-house and partly using well-known authors and illustrators including John Moore, John Wentworth-Day, Bernard Darwin, John Leigh-Pemberton, Ivor Brown and Derrick Harris. The texts are deceptively detailed and all volumes are well-illustrated. Several volumes (especially 2, 3 and 8) are scarce; one (no. 11) is rare; most are now elusive in really good condition with dustwrappers. The series was clearly well-received: The Times termed it a 'novel enterprise in commercial publishing'; the Illustrated London News called it ' a valuable addition to the literature of the trade and our social life'. With the present popularity of real ale and the resurgence of craft brewing, the series deserves the appreciation of another generation. COMPLETE SETS OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION IN DUSTWRAPPERS ARE PARTICULARLY SCARCE.