The Rod, Gun, and Palette in the High Rockies. Being a record of an Artist's Impressions in the Land of the Red Gods

Chicago: W.E. Wroe , 1914. First Edition, First Printing. Three quarter leather. Fair/none as issued. James Blomfield. A fair first and only edition of "Less than 25 printed for the participants" [Bruns,(5)3, p.32] [Smith's, 30]. The infamously poor leather (3/4 pigskin) on this edition is flaked and missing on the spine and corners, much as other copies on the market.This copy's leather has been treated with Kucel-G. Stain to front cover. VG+ internally. 116 pages, [4] leaves of color plates : illustrations. Octavo. Mr. Blomfield made some twenty-three studies in oil and water color, besides a book full of pencil sketches during the month he was with us, all ofwhich were most satisfying to one who knows and loves the country at the time late fall, as chief femme du chambre, arranges the morning gowns andevening robes for Mistress Earth.He was vacationing at his work, and the country and the air at the 6,700 and 8,000 foot elevations, at which it was done, were both a joy and an inspiration to him. He seemed to hear and understand the tongueless tattle of the vibrant mornings and the solemn speech of the sentinel hills at evening. Asscience has proven to us that sound and color are akin, so 1 may say that to me, Mr. Blomfield caught and fastened in a frame the songs of the waters and the wooded slopes, so that we may listen with our eyes.Mr. Blomfield also kept a log of our trip, and I found his pen as facile as his brush, and that his log very naturally carried some splendid word picturesof the constantly changing environment of prairie, butte, stream, and mountain, in all their variation of tone and color as an artist saw them every day.He has written so charmingly and honestly of our simple camp life, its small events and good companionship, and enriched it with so many descriptions of the fields and hills as they smiled or sulked in alternate sun and shade that I determined to produce his log in permanent form. Mr. Blomfield has most kindly added to it a number of rapid pen drawings, from his own sketches.I hope that the printing of this log will vivify the aflFection of its readers for the great outdoors, and the outdoor life." Publisher's Note