Books and Manuscripts

London: George Bell and Sons, 1898. First and limited edition thus, #7/150 numbered copies printed on Japanese vellum and including one additional illustration. 8vo. xxiii, (352) pp. Profusely lllustrated by Edmund J. Sullivan. This copy beautifully hand-colored by Gloria Cardew (one of two copies colored by her). From the library of Charles Dexter Allen, author of American Book-plates: A Guide to Their Study with Examples, 1894, and with his book-plate on front paste-down with a MS. quote from Shakespeare in the hand of Cardew. Additionally, an A.L.s by Cardew, presumably to Allen, referencing the book-plate among other things, tipped in. Publisher's binding of oatmeal buckram, stamped in black and red; top edge trimmed, other edges untrimmed.

"Gloria Cardew was a prolific hand-colorist of book illustration, often working for the Guild of Women-Binders, as well as the Kelmscott and Vale Presses. Little is known of her. It is thought that her name is a pseudonym, though her photograph was published in the 1898 exhibition catalogue of the Guild of Women-Binders." (Five Hundred Years of Women's Work: The Lisa Unger Baskin Collection, Duke University Librairies)

In her letter, Cardew points out that she completed the coloring of this copy of Sartor Resartus in 1900. She also references Frank Karslake, the bookseller responsible for forming The Guild of Women-Binders. It was Karslake who came up with the idea of adding value to a book by way of artists such as Cardew adding color to the illustrations. The hand-coloring was no doubt time consuming but created an undeniable effect to the work. Three years before completing this copy Cardew had 32 books with her handiwork in an exhibition organized by Karslake. Few examples of Cardew's work seem to survive. Rare.

From the library of bibliophile and long-standing Grolier Club member David Allen Fraser (1911-2003).