Painting as a Pastime, the first edition, finely bound

Winston S. Churchill

Published by Odhams Press Limited, Ernest Benn Limited, London, 1948

This is the first edition, first printing of Painting as a Pastime, Churchill's essay about his famous hobby. This copy is finely bound in half leather, featuring dark green Morocco goatskin with gilt title and author print bracketed by raised, gilt rule-bordered spine bands. The goatskin spine and generous corners terminate in double blind rule transitions to complementary green marbled paper-covered boards. The contents are bound with red and green silk head and tail bands. Bound in at the rear is the original pale green cloth cover and spine.Condition of the binding is fine clean, bright, tight, and square, with sharp corners and no discernible wear. The first printing contents are well-suited to fine binding, having been printed by the publisher on laid paper and accompanied by full-color illustrations. Condition of the contents is very good, bright with no previous ownership marks. Modest spotting, the only defect, appears substantially confined to the top edges of the text block edges and the half-title, frontispiece, and title page.Painting as a Pastime had been printed in The Strand Magazine as early as 1921, but it was not until 1948 - nearly three decades after his first published words on the subject - that Churchill consented to a book about his hobby and passion. Soldier, writer, and politician, Churchill was perhaps an unlikely painter. Nonetheless he proved both a prolific and passionate one. Churchill first took up painting during the First World War. May 1915 saw Churchill scapegoated for failure in the Dardanelles and slaughter at Gallipoli and forced from his Cabinet position as First Lord of the Admiralty. By November 1915 Churchill was serving at the Front, leading a battalion in the trenches. But during the summer of 1915, as he battled depression, he rented Hoe Farm in Surrey, which he frequented with his wife and three children. One day in June, Churchill noticed his brother's wife, Gwendeline, sketching in watercolors. Churchill borrowed her brush and swiftly found solace in painting, which would be a passion and source of release and renewal for the remaining half century of his long life. Winston's wife Clementine had opposed the idea of her husband's opining in print on the subject, concerned that he might be belittled by professional painters and others. Clementine aside, it may be that Churchill's comparative reticence on the subject was to keep something personal in the great and turbulent sweep of his otherwise tremendously public life. He wrote, "Painting is a friend who makes no undue demands, excites to no exhausting pursuits, keeps faithful pace even with feeble steps, and holds her canvas as a screen between us and the envious eyes of Time or the surly advance of Decrepitude" (Painting as a Pastime, p. 13). Whatever Churchill's reason for penning and ultimately consenting to book publication of Painting as a Pastime complete with images of his paintings, the relatively few words he offered on the subject add something truly personal and different to the great body of his writing.Reference: Cohen A242.1.a, Woods/ICS A125(a), Langworth p.288. Seller Inventory # 008070

Bibliographic Details

Title: Painting as a Pastime, the first edition, ...
Publisher: Odhams Press Limited, Ernest Benn Limited, London
Publication Date: 1948
Binding: Half leather
Edition: First edition, first printing.