INSCRIBED BY RICKETTS
Tess of the d'urbervilles
Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., 1891.
First edition, first issue. Three volumes. 8vo. Original publisher's honeysuckle cloth, with gilt designs by Charles Ricketts. Inscribed to the first blank of the third volume by Ricketts, "To Rylis, C.S. Ricketts". A near fine copy. Spine very slightly cocked, and light pushing to spine ends, but a very crisp and bright set. Front hinges of vol I and II with splits, but still sound and internally very fresh indeed. Housed in a bespoke quarter morocco clamshell box.
A superlative copy of one of Hardy's greatest achievements, in the original cloth and inscribed by its designer.
Edith Hacon, known as Amaryllis ("Rylis" for short) was an artist's model who married William L. Hacon (1860-1910), co-founder with Ricketts of the Vale Press.
Rickett's design for this novel was significant, "different from almost all previously published books by Thomas Hardy, or, for that matter, by any other author. These books were obviously designed by someone with a genius for artistic lay-out, by someone with taste and originality" (Carl J. Weber, Charles Ricketts and His Books, in Colby Library Quarterly, Series III, no. 4, 1951).
Stock ID: 42553
£35,000.00
