Fore-Edge Painting, Miss C B Currie / Rudyard Kipling : Riviere Fine Binding

FORE-EDGE PAINTING BY MISS C. B. CURRIE

The Five Nations [bound with] The Seven Seas

By Rudyard Kipling

Both titles published by Methuen and Co, London, 1923. Twenty-Seventh Printing. 

Beautifully bound by Riviere & Son for Henry Sotheran in a dark maroon straight-grained morocco, with gilt tooling to both boards and to the spine compartments, and dated 1923 at the foot of the spine. The front endpaper has Riviere and Son's stamp as well as Sotheran's stamp. Gilt dentelles, fore-edge painting by Currie under gilt, bound in at the front is a page informing the reader about the fore-edge painting, and is signed by C B Currie. Comes in a plain cloth slipcase.

FORE-EDGE PAINTING
With a fore-edge painting by Miss C B Currie showing a view of a Mahomedan Tomb with elephants passing by. This is number 86 of the books with fore-edge painting by Miss Currie. It is believed that she painted 172 fore-edge paintings for Henry Sotheran.

Currie worked primarily on Cosway bindings, which are special bookbindings that often feature her miniature paintings under glass, and she is recognized as one of the most talented miniature-painters of the twentieth century, with her work being diagnostic of true Cosway bindings.

There isn’t a single freely available public “complete list” of every book she painted, but there is a dedicated catalogue raisonné that covers her known fore-edge paintings: Jeff Weber’s An Annotated Dictionary of Fore-edge Painting Artists & Binders (Mostly English & American). Part II: The Fore-edge Paintings of Miss C. B. Currie; with a Catalogue Raisonné (2010).

CONDITION
A fine copy indeed! The leather binding is in very good condition with no damage, marks, scuffs or rubbing and the corners remain sharp. Binding firm and square. Endpapers good. All contents present to both books and pages very clean throughout. Overall a fine copy.

(GC2)