john moyr smith illustrator (1 Ergebnisse)

Oblong 8vo, pp.10, [2 (blank)], with 5 sanguine lithographic plates (of which one double-page); two woodcut illustrations printed in-text; very slightly dusty at edges, but a good copy; bound in publisher's blue pebble-grained cloth, front board blocked in black and lettered in gilt, rear board blocked in blind, black endpapers; slightly faded and frayed at extremities, sewing a little loose; ink inscription 'Elsa Forman | from Haha | Novr.82 | 24' to front free endpaper verso.Scarce first and only edition of John Moyr Smith's illustrations of the life of Theseus, accompanying the text of Plutarch's Life. Though purporting to be 'after the manner of early Greek paintings', the plates the work of the Scottish architect, designer, and art historian John Moyr Smith (18391912) are not dissimilar in style to his celebrated literary tiles, which illustrate scenes from Aesop and the Bible to Shakespeare and Tennyson. His work owes much, however, to Alexander 'Greek' Thompson and his circle in Glasgow, whom he had known after training at the Glasgow School of Art; soon after he moved to Manchester as assistant to Alfred Derbyshire, and in 1866 to London as assistant to George Gilbert Scott. He made few forays into book illustration, although in 1869 he was sent to Paris to meet Gustave Doré on behalf of their mutual publisher Moxon. Provenance: Elsa Forman (d.1962), Honorary Secretary of the KeatsShelley Memorial Association and niece of the bibliographer and forger Harry Buxton Forman. No copies traced in the US; Library Hub finds copies at the British Library, Bodleian, Cambridge University Library, NLS, and NLA only. See Stapleton, 'John Moyr Smith 18391912' in The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 20 (1996), pp.1828.