Kent, Rockwell. The Seven Ages of Man
New York: Published by the Author, 1918. First and limited edition, #88/100 numbered copies. Folio. Illustrated with four black and white prints mounted to stiff paper, after drawings by Rockwell Kent, and each signed by him in pencil in lower right; loose as issued. Original stiff grey wrappers, printed cover label, split along bottom of spine. OCLC 32751417
A handsome and very scarce copy of Rockwell Kent's very limited anti-war portfolio, a series that "magnifies the depth of Kent's hatred of war." (The Kent Collector, Spring 1996, Vol. XXII, No. 3, p. 4). Published during World War I, and taking its title from Shakespeare's As You Like It, here Kent shows the seven ages of man's life, cut short as a causality of war. "The promise of life's wonders, so poignantly presented in the first three drawings, is cut to the quick in the fourth drawing as the young soldier lays fallen with the symbols of war around him (Ibid, p. 4).
Scarce to auction, RBH locates only five other copies offered since 1974. OCLC locates only five copies, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Princeton University Library, Columbia University Library, the Boston Athenaeum, and at the Library of Congress.
Lot includes a copy of The Kent Collector (Spring 1996, Vol. XXII, No. 3), whose cover reproduces the fourth print in this suite.
This lot is located in Philadelphia.
Provenance
From the collection of Justin G. Schiller
