Carmina

Paris: E Prelis Fratrum Mame, 1808. With a Fine Fore-Edge Painting of Verona, Italy
by the "Double-Line Painter"

FORE-EDGE PAINTING. DOUBLE-LINE PAINTER. HORACE (Quintus Horatius Flaccus. Carmina. Editio Stereotypa Herhan. Paris: E Prelis Fratrum Mame, 1808.

With a fine early twentieth century fore-edge painting by the "Double-Line Painter" showing a colorful view of Verona, Italy.

Twelvemo (6 5/16 x 3 15/16 inches; 161 x 97 mm.). [i]-xi, [xii, blank], [1]-354 pp.

Full contemporary maroon straight-grain morocco, covers elaborately tooled in gilt and blind, spine with four shallow raised bands, decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt board-edges and double-ruled turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. With the Armorial bookplate of Sir Thomas Rumbold, 1st Baronet (1736-1791) with an note in ink by his son Charles Rumbold (1788-1857) who was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, and then went to Trinity College, Cambridge. The motto "Virtutis Laus Actio" means "The Praise of Virtue is Action".

The "Double-Line Painter" was an English artist, name unknown, possibly active in the 1920s. The most identifiable feature of this artist's work is the label for the painting. The artist labels his own paintings on the the front fly-leaf. If you look carefully you will see a neat light penciled double-line above and below the written title (like an architect would do). The painting title itself is also neatly written in tiny letters. This artist is highly skilled painter with high productivity." (Jeff Weber. Annotated Dictionary of Fore-Edge Painting Artists & Binders, pp. 95-96). Jeff Weber cites eight example of the "Double-Line" artist in his book on pp. 96-97.

Provenance: Charles Rumbold (1788-1857).