Boyle, Eleanor Vere [EVB]

[Boyle, Eleanor Vere- With Presentation ALS from Louise Boyle] Child's Play

London: Addey and Co., Anastatic Press, [1852].

First Edition. Quarto, 10 x 7 inches. In contemporary blue cloth (gilt), which Louise Boyle had bound for the recipient (see below). With ALS by a direct descendent of EVB, Louise Boyle, addressed to “Ethel.” The book is inscribed in two places on the title-page by Louise Boyle, 1) at top: “To Sybil Sassoon (Louise’s cousin) from Louise Boyle,” and below E.V.B, “(The Hon. Mrs. Richard Boyle [aka Eleanor Vere Boyle, who married Richard Cavendish Boyle]” [Sybil Rachel Betty Cecile Sassoon, Marchioness of Cholmondeley]. This is Eleanor Vere Boyle’s first book, with compositions of children set in idyllic landscapes, both romantic and sentimental. The mode of printing (anastatic lithography) recreates her draughtsmanship precisely, sympathetically linked to Pre-Raphaelite imagery, Arthur Hughes, and even the child-like designs of Richard Doyle. Laid in is a two-page letter (front and back of one 12mo sheet) by Louise Boyle, dated 29th April, 1933 and addressed to Ethel, “Mrs. Richard Boyle was well-known in her day as E.V.>, and I thought I would like to add this to your collection for Sybil. Sorry to have had to re-bind it, but the original binding was too dilapidated. I never saw her, as she died at the age of 93 just after I was married. She was the owner of Hunercombe. Printed “anastatically” throughout, a fascinating relief printing technique developed circa 1840 using a chemical method to lift ink from an existing printed page and transfer it to a new surface (i.e., without requiring the original blocks or metal plates). Title-page, an additional illustrated title-page, and 16 further full-page illustrations combined with nursery- rhyme texts. Slight foxing to prelims. Printed on one-sed only on thicker paper. Near fine. Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825-1916), was an accomplished Scottish artist of the Victorian era whose work consisted mainly of watercolor illustrations in children’s books which were strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. Known for being highly detailed and haunting in content, her work featured themes of love and death, amid everyday happy experience, popular subject matter of Pre-Raphaelite art. In fact, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, called her work “great in design.” Still, she signed her works “EVB’ to obscure her identity, though quickly became one of the most important female illustrators in the 1860s. Very scarce thus, the actual first edition of this work is quite scarce, having been reprinted multiple times in different formats.

Price: $2,250.00   Item #6818