The Jungle Book

First Detmold edition. With 16 coloured plates by the brothers Detmold incuding the frontispiece which is retained behind tissue. 8vo. pp [xii] + 314 + [2]; publisher's original red cloth with gilt lettering to spine and decorative gilt block to upper board, backstrip and a bar across the lower board slightly faded. Top edge gilt. Browning to endpapers; text pages wonderfully clean, as are the plates which have retained their vivid colour and sheen. A near fine copy. The Detmold plates are among the finest examples of lithography ever published in a book. Maurice Detmold and Edward Julius Detmold were English graphic artists, twins, born on 21 November 1883. Due to the illness of their father, they grew up in the care of their uncle, Dr E B Shuldham, who had acquired a notable collection of Japanese woodprints of plants and animals. This encouraged the twins to commence drawing animals and plants at a very early age, and resulted in a debut (aged 13) at the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute of Watercolour Painters, with nature studies in the Japanese style. The Detmolds subsequently learned techniques of watercolour etching and of colour printing with copper plates.…