Birket Foster R.W.S. (Myles Birket Foster)

London: Adam and Charles Black, 1906. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Very good +. A Very Good + copy of the first edition, first printing in the Publisher's original blue boards with the front board and sunned spine lettered and lined gilt and decorated in white, green, and gilt, with a tissue-guarded frontis and 72 tissue-guarded color plates with the description of each illustration stated on the verso of its tissue paper guard. Numerous black and white illustrations also are found scattered through the volume. The book shows pushing and modest wear to the spine ends and tiny rubs to each board's leading corners and the front free endpaper shows a small clip to its upper right corner above a prior-seller's price (in pencil). The top edge of the closed page block is in gilt. There is a tiny hole to the tissue guard for the frontis and the tissue guard to the plate titled "BY THE THYMES" has a closed tear to its upper portion which is not invasive of the text. The Plate titled "SKETCH FOR THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP" is miscut at the bottom right corner as is the following text page. Each resulting overhang has been imprecisely folded causing each such corner to wrongly appeared clipped. [Images thereof can be found at our proprietary site.] Myles Birket Foster was a Victorian-era British illustrator, watercolourist, and engraver. He made illustrations for Punch Magazine, the Illustrated London News, and the Illustrated London Almanach. Foster held his first Exhibition in 1843 and worked as a book illustrator in the 1850s. Fosters illustrations of Longfellow’s "Evangeline" as well as various books of poetry by other authors were quite well received and propelled him to becoming a successful artist in watercolours in his own right. H. M. Cundall wrote this wonderful illustrated Biography of Foster. A Very Good + copy.
A NOTE TO THE READER: "Birket Foster" was the only book published by A & C Black in 1906 to be published in this format and in a large paper Limited Edition (in this case comprised of 500 copies). The regular edition was republished in 1930 without changing the date and thus was dated "1906" as is this copy. However, this copy has the characteristics necessary to show it to be the original 1906 edition, thus is, along with the large paper Limited Edition, a true first edition, first printing.