About this Item
Handsomely bound in highly decorated brown cloth with delicate gilt filigree designs and motifs on the front and rear boards, as well as upon the spine. The gilt is somewhat faded with the patina of time. There is external edge wear along the spine; wear to the top and bottom of the spine ends and to the corners. With 30 pages of text in French (describing the plates) and 88 pages of illustrations from photographs in various tints. With 14 pages of ads and two pages for memorandum printed on blue paper at the end of the book. The book is very clean and tight internally with the large bookplate of "Taken from the Library of Rosamond Crompton" on the front paste-down, and Mrs. Gardner's inscription written horizontally across the front endpaper, indicating that this is possibly a signed/presentation to Rosamond Crompton. (Most likely, this is Rosamond Sears Crompton, granddaughter of architect Willard T. Sears, who designed Gardners home and then was hired to design her museum with significant input from Mrs. Gardner. In 1900 Rosamond would have been only two years old, so presumably the book was given to the elder Sears or someone else in the family, and she later inherited it.) The volume is also inscribed in French on a full page following the title page by the publisher G. Sangiorgi to Isabella Stewart Gardner: "A Madame Isabelle Stewart Gardner Boston. Dans votre vie intellectuelle vous avec consacre bien d enthousiasme au culte des beaux-arts; je vous consacre donc ce petit livre qui pour l'amour de l art a à tà fait. Votre aimable protection au portera bonheur." Translation: "To Madame Isabelle Stewart Gardner Boston. In your intellectual life, you have devoted a great deal of enthusiasm to the cult of the fine arts; I dedicate this little book to you, which for the love of art was made. Your kind protection will bring good luck." (The editor of the book, Giorgio Sangiorgi, was a leading antiquarian and art dealer of Florence. Sangiorgis gesture in dedicating the book to Mrs. Gardner may not have been motivated by personal considerations alone. A amber of items now in the collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum were acquired by Gardner at Sangiorgis gallery. There is an advertisement for his gallery among the ads in the back.) A very charming and delightful volume with two signed presentations. Isabella Stewart Gardner(1840-1924) was a leading American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. She founded theIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Gardner possessed an energetic intellectual curiosity and a love of travel. She was a friend of noted artists and writers of the day, includingJohn Singer Sargent,James McNeill Whistler,Dennis Miller Bunker, Anders Zorn, Henry James, Okakura Kakuzo, and Francis Marion Crawford. Gardner created much fodder for the gossip columns of the day with her reputation for stylish tastes and unconventional behavior. The Boston society pages called her by many names, including "Belle," "Donna Isabella," "Isabella of Boston," and "Mrs. Jack". Her surprising appearance at a 1912 concert (at what was then a very formalBoston Symphony Orchestra) wearing a white headband emblazoned with "Oh, youRed Sox" was reported at the time to have "almost caused a panic", and still remains in Boston one of the most talked about of her eccentricities. (Wikipedia) First Edition with matching dates of 1895 on the title and copyright pages.
Seller Inventory # 1130
Contact seller
Report this item
