The Collection of Heraldic Stained Glass at Ronaele Manor, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, the Residence of Mr. & Mrs. Fitz Eugene Dixon [Riviere & Son Binding] by F. Sydney Eden - 1927

London: The Arden Press, 1927. Very Good. London: The Arden Press, 1927. Small quarto (10.25" x 7.75"); 120pp. Tipped-in color illustrated frontis on gray paper plus 53 full-color plates with tissue guards, all present. Riviere & Son binding (in full blue leather with gilt borders, elaborate gilt stamping and five raised bands to spine, gilt dentelles to overlays and moire silk endpapers, and gilt top page edges. Housed in blue cloth-covered slipcase. Joints rubbed with bottom front just barely starting. Front free endpaper overglued along gutter and obscuring inner gilt-decorated overlay, with front hinge cracking after flyleaf, but binding is secure. Pages clean and unmarked. Slipcase shows a few light scuffs and marks, but no splits.

F. Sydney Eden's elaborate tour of Eugene and Eleanor Dixon's collection of English, Dutch and Flemish Heraldic stained-glass windows from the 14th-16th centuries, installed at Ronaele Manor, a 60-room Tudor Revival mansion designed by Horace Trumbauer and completed in 1926, just a year before publication. The collection was at the time the finest private collection in the country, but was dispersed when the manor was demolished in 1974.

This copy from the personal library of journalist and language writer William Safire (with no ownership marks). His wife, Helene, is a noted glass artist and jewelry maker.