[PRE-RAPHAELITES]. Catalogue of artistic & literary property removed from "The Pines", 11 Putney (the home of A.C. Swinburne and Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton)

London: Sotheby's, 1939. First Edition. Very good. Large 8vo. 21 pp., 82 lots. Illustrated issue, complete with 5 plates not found in ordinary issues. Original printed wrapper (to the upper cover is affixed Maggs Bros. label soliciting bids). Loosely inserted is a reproduction of the price-list and buyers' names. IMPORTANT BUT LITTLE-KNOWN SALE CATALOGUE OF PRE-RAPHAELITE PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND MANUSCRIPTS BELONGING TO SWINBURNE AND TO ROSSETTI'S FRIEND AND FORMER ASSISTANT, WATTS-DUNTON.

The full title of the catalogue shows that the sale contained "important drawings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a self- portrait by Ford Madox Ford, drawings of Rossetti and his house in Cheyne Walk by Henry Treffrey Dunn; an extensive and interesting autograph correspondence from Dante Gabriel Rossetti to his studio assistant, H. Treffry Dunn; H. Treffry Dunn's autograph ms. "Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his circle"; an unrecorded proof of a Byron engraving presented to Watts-Dunton by Swinburne; old master paintings and Whistler etchings; Swinburne's cherished bronze of Victor Hugo; furniture and works of art, including mirrors and a cabinet painted by Dunn with copies from Rossetti's works, some now lost; signed and presentation books, photographs and relics."

Jorge L. Contreras explains: "Rossetti met Theodore Watts-Dunton, a solicitor, poet and critic, in the autumn of 1872, when the artist returned to London following a brief convalescence in Scotland. [...] By 1876-77, Watts-Dunton was among Rossetti's closest friends and companions." Watts-Dunton was also Rossetti's studio assistant. -- SOURCE: "Re-identification of Picture for a Story by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82) and Henry Treffry Dunn (1838-99)" in: British Art Journal (Autumn 2012), Vol. 13, Issue 2.

Our copy belongs to the greatly superior "Illustrated issue," with 5 plates not found in ordinary issues. We have seen various digitized versions, and in all of them the scans of the illustrations are ABYSMAL.