ARTHUR RACKHAM
VELLUCENT BINDING BY CEDRIC CHIVERS 6. RACKHAM, Arthur; WASHINGTON, Irving RIP VAN WINKLE Heinemann, 1905. First edition. 4to. Finely bound by Cedric Chivers, c.1905, stamp signed to rear turn in. Full green morocco, with five inlaid vel - lucent panels, containing miniature watercolours reproducing Rackham’s imagery painted on vellum. The upper cover is fur- ther decorated with an Art Nouveau design in gilt and two circu- lar green morocco onlays, accentuated by gilt punched dots. The smooth spine is decorated with Art Nouveau gilt decoration and circular amber morocco onlay. Single line gilt border on covers and a heart-shaped gilt design to the rear. Gilt ruled turn-ins and patterned endpapers. All edges gilt. Fifty-one colour plates by Rackham are mounted onto green art paper and protected by tissue guards: apart from the frontis they are all mounted together at the end of the text. One of the double page plates has a slight corner crease to the white border. A very good copy indeed of this extraordinary production, morocco binding with very slight rubs to the joints, slight fading to some panels and occasional foxing to the prelim- inary and terminal pages. [40114] £3,000 Cedric Chivers introduced these “vellucent” style bindings in order to assist the production of beautiful hand painted watercolour bindings, which prior to this point had been subject to damage, smudging and wear. The new process involved painting an image in ink and watercolour on paper and then a thin layer of stretched vellum was laid over to seal the illustration, thus protecting the painting. Gilt decoration, lettering and borders were then embossed onto the covers. Most Vellucent bindings were designed by H. Granville Fell with the paintings done by one of a group of 5 women, Dorothy Carleton Smyth, Alice Shepherd, Miss J.D. Dunn, Muriel Taylor, and Agatha Gales. In many cases the name of the artist is not advertised.
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