Durbar (deluxe edition)

London : Adam & Charles Black, 1903. Quarto, gilt-lettered decorated cloth over bevelled boards (lightly marked, upper board creased), hinges cracked, top edge gilt, others uncut, endpapers lightly foxed, pp. xii; 210, illustrated with 100 colour plates with captioned tissue guards; occasional scattered foxing, a good copy. The edition de luxe, limited to 1000 numbered copies signed by Mortimer Menpes.

A fine illustrated work by Adelaide-born artist Mortimer Menpes, with text written by his daughter Dorothy Whistler Menpes. Mortimer Menpes moved to England at the age of twenty where he would enjoy a successful career in painting and etching. In 1880 he embarked on a sketching tour of Brittany, where he befriended James MacNeil Whistler, becoming his pupil and close associate, and learning the art of etching from the master. Menpes became a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (RE) in 1881, Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) in 1885, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) in 1897 and Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) in 1899, and, amongst other achievements, was also godfather to Oscar Wilde’s son Vyvyan.

A stunning book documenting Menpes’ attendance of the Delhi Durbar, held to celebrate the succession of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra as Emperor and Empress of India.