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First Edition. Elephant folio. ìThe Estill Copy.î [sheets: 22.5 ? 15.25 inches] [vellum binder: 23 ? 16 ? 1.25 inches] [deluxe folding book case: 25 ? ? 18 ? 2.25 inches]. Title-page printed in red and black, with the designation ìIndia Paper Proofsî at upper right, and limitation statement at foot: ì100 Copies of this Edition only Printed, of which this is No. 22.î Thus, the vanishingly scarce Deluxe Edition, illustrated with 62 wood engravings and preliminary pages printed on India paper and finely laid down on watermarked ìJ. Whatman Bî wove rag paper, so skillfully executed that the seams are nearly invisible. The wood-engraved designs are by leading Victorian artists and Pre-Raphaelites, including Edward Burne-Jones, William Holman Hunt, George Frederic Watts, Ford Madox Brown, Frederic Leighton, Simeon Solomon, and others; engraved by the Dalziel Brothers. Sheets laid in, as issued, and the whole neatly captured in an exquisite, thick vellum-backed binding serving as a plate portfolio. This is housed in a substantial vellum-over-board chemise or flap-case, with patterned endpapers; all are further housed in a later outer box with custom cloth and a drop-spine (clamshell-style) enclosure. Notably, this deluxe issue preserves variant titling in at least one plate: Plate No. 57, commonly (if not universally) given as ìEsther Denouncing Hamanî in the contents page. However, in our copy, Plate No. 57 (with the same design) appears in its expected position, captioned ìHaman Supplicating Esther,î a form also recorded in a British Library 1-of-100 issue, the only other Deluxe Issue we were able to locate. The variant title present here likely represents an earlier or alternate state within the production sequence of the Deluxe Edition proofs and serves provisionally as a point of issue distinguishing select impressions. Apart from the British Museum copy, and the present "Estill Copy," no other auction records or sales reports have been located for this 100-copy Deluxe issue. Institutional and auction records (Metropolitan Museum of Art; British Museum; Forum Auctions, 2024, etc.) consistently describe copies from the 1,000-copy edition, likewise with mounted India proofs but without the 100-copy limitation. As well, and sadly, the edition did not sell well owing to its immense size and cost, and remainder copies were dispersed and evidently lost to the market. The work itself originated in an ambitious project conceived in the 1860s by the Dalziel Brothers, inspired in part by Schnorr von Carolsfeldís Bible in Pictures, and intended as a grand, artistically unified illustrated Bible drawing on leading figures of the Pre-Raphaelite and High Victorian schools. Though delayed in execution, the final publication stands as one of the most significant collaborations between British painters and wood engravers of the period. An exceptionally scarce survival, occupying a historically important position in the annals of decorative book production; in fine condition, a beautiful work combining early-state characteristics, deluxe production, and a limitation of only 100 copies.
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