 |
| Binding by Donald Glaister. |
One of only six deluxe, hand-colored presentation copies of T.H. White's classic, The Sword in the Stone, his modern recasting of the Mallorean Arthurian legend, the first part of his Once and Future King series, and the author’s most famous work, has come to market.
White's signed presentation inscription reads:
"Of this edition six copies were coloured by the author, and presented to L.J. Potts, David Garnett, Michael Trubshawe, Siegfried Sassoon, and John Masefield. The sixth was retained by the author. T.H. White."
White's signed presentation inscription reads:
"Of this edition six copies were coloured by the author, and presented to L.J. Potts, David Garnett, Michael Trubshawe, Siegfried Sassoon, and John Masefield. The sixth was retained by the author. T.H. White."
L.J. Potts was White's tutor at Cambridge, lifelong friend and close correspondent; British actor Michael Trubshawe (1905-1985) was a close friend, as was poet Siegfried Sassoon and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and childrens book author John Masefield.
This is David Garnett's copy, in a later, magnificently jeweled binding of genuine emeralds, rubies, and sapphires by Donald Glaister, with multicolored and gilt-decorated morocco and stingray inlays that abstract sword, stone, castle walls, cathedral windows, a vista of Britain in the distance, and an Escher-esque stairway to nowhere.
This is David Garnett's copy, in a later, magnificently jeweled binding of genuine emeralds, rubies, and sapphires by Donald Glaister, with multicolored and gilt-decorated morocco and stingray inlays that abstract sword, stone, castle walls, cathedral windows, a vista of Britain in the distance, and an Escher-esque stairway to nowhere.
David "Bunny" Garnett (1892-1981) was a bookseller in London (Birrell & Garnett) and co-founder of Nonesuch Press, a small, fine press publisher famed for the outstanding quality and taste of its productions. He was a member of the Bloomsbury circle, marrying Vanessa Bell's daughter, scandalously twenty-six years his junior: Present at her birth, he, according to Carolyn G. Heilbrun's biography of the literary Garnett family, swore to marry "it" when she came of age twenty years later. His father was critic, biographer, and essayist Edward Garnett; his mother, Constance, was the foremost translator of the Russian novelists; and his grandfather was the literary historian, poet, critic, biographer, and curator of books at the British Museum, Richard Garnett,
Garnett was also an acclaimed novelist, one of his later novels, Aspects of Love (1955) adapted for the musical stage by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
 |
| Hand-coloring by T.H. White. |
This precious copy is being offered for a cool $38,500 by high-spot specialist Biblioctopus (website a simple billboard), the Beverly Hills, California-based rare book firm that prides itself on refusing to bow to modern technology - "NO e-mail or Fax EVER" - yet will gladly communicate via Alexander Graham Bell's 19th century invention. TELEPHONE: 310 271-2173.
__________Images courtesy of Biblioctopus proprietor, Mark Hime, with our thanks.
__________
__________
