Skyscrapers of New York by BAILEY, Vernon Howe (1874-1953); Cass GILBERT (1859-1934) - 1928

New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1928. A very good copy with light toning to boards, occasional pale spotting internally, and several small marginal closed tears. Folio (42 x 27 cm; 16½ x 10¾ inches). 5 pages text, 24 full-page plates including frontispiece. Original quarter white patterned muslin, blue boards, gilt-lettered on front cover and spine; portions of dust jacket preserved. Provenance: Charles R. Lamb (1860-1942), American sculptor and architect (presentation inscription from the author); then to his son and grandson (inscriptions). FIRST EDITION, a fine association copy, inscribed to the architect of New York's Dewey Arch, Charles R. Lamb, on the front free endpaper: "To Charles R. Lamb Esq. who with inspired vision, first foreseeing the need of set-back architecture, new boulevards, and elevated speed ways, etc. now a reality, devised and advocated plans for them to the great benefit and beautification of the City of New York. Vernon Howe Bailey New York 1930." Above this inscription is that "To David - Christmas 1946 from Mummy and Daddy": i.e. from Charles Lamb's son Joseph Condie Lamb and his wife Elizabeth Neal Lamb, presenting the book to their son David C. Lamb.  The work consists of reproductions of black-and-white line drawings by Bailey of New York buildings and vistas including the Woolworth Building, Hotel Warwick, Park Avenue and the Ritz Tower, New York Telephone Company Building, New York from Brooklyn Heights, Standard Oil Building, and Battery Park. Cass Gilbert, author of the introduction, was a prominent American architect and president of the American Institute of Architects. Among his many achievements, the finest were the Woolworth Building in New York and the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. .